


Return from the Different Dimension

by tatersalad5001



Series: Miracle Synchro Fusion [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: (now i can add some 5ds tags! sorry this'll be confusing), (this whole thing isn't texting but more of it than i intended is oops), (trying to make sure i have the right tags for this), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Background Relationships, Gen, M/M, Multi, Non-binary Yubel, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Slice of Life, Texting, bastion come back you can blame it all on me, competitorshipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-19 06:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 37,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13698294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/tatersalad5001
Summary: Ever since graduation, Jesse had been undecided on his career path. Which, most people thought, had been ridiculous. Jesse took duels by storm in school, had won international competitions, was even ranked highly in terms of all-time duelists by Pegasus himself. And yet, it hadn’t felt right to make dueling into a career at the time. Nothing really had. That last year of school had held too many dangerous situations, too many life threatening duels for him.The twins were young, probably around ten or so. One of their parents was some distant relative of Jesse’s. The parents were busy a lot, almost always out of town. They’d gotten into contact with Jesse not too long ago, and Jesse had spent a fair amount of time babysitting them ever since.





	1. Performapal Recasting

**Author's Note:**

> So, before we get into this, we need to go over some things, and I apologize greatly, but I feel it's necessary.
> 
> First off, uh, there are established romantic relationships here, and there will be more added when it's relevant. And if these relationships aren't you're thing, I totally understand. But know these relationships aren't going to be like, super in your face, no extreme romantic stuff or anything, I'm probably not gonna treat them super differently than how I've treated like, every platonic relationship I've ever written, because, like, it's just kinda not super my thing. (If you read the Duel World (GX) series? It's gonna be super like that.) So if you're not into specific characters dating that are here, you can probably, hopefully ignore it for the most part, since it shouldn't be super prominent unless something major changes. Otherwise, uh, these characters are dating because I said so and it's important because I said so and that's that.
> 
> Second off, there's some minor established backstory here, and it's explained here, no worries. The way that it's explained, it's supposed to be like Duel World (GX)'s general storyline but without the actual virtual reality part. So I just wanna make it clear that like, if you read Rainbow Path or Hero Signal (or both), you can definitely see those as being in like, the same universe as this and as like, happening before this one. Or if you don't want to, that's fine too! I also want to make it clear that Rainbow Path and Hero Signal aren't required reading for this one. If you haven't read them, it's fine, feel free to read or not read them.  
>   
> And lastly, there is a 95% chance this will have multiple chapters. In the case that this does, this will become a crossover, probably by the next chapter. It won't be a super crazy crossover, just a crossover with another Yugioh series. And there's like, a 66% chance that this could become part of a series that crosses over with a bunch of other Yugioh series (though this fic would remain just a crossover between the two.) So just as like, a fair warning, I guess. In the case that any of this happens, any updates will probably not be super fast and super often, at least at the moment, because I have a fair amount of other ongoing things here, and college just like, never ends, so I apologize on that. In any case, thanks for reading, and enjoy!

“So.” Jesse gestured to the TV in front of him, his thumb hovering over the play button on its remote. “This is your next opponent?”

“Nah, not him,” Chazz corrected. “It’s the other one. He’s new, only been in a few pro duels so far. He supposedly has some new tricks up his sleeve, but he shouldn’t be any match for the Chazz.”

“‘Course he ain’t,” Jesse replied. “Still, you can’t be too careful.” Chazz snorted and flopped on the couch next to him. Jesse pressed play, and the duel recording started.

Chazz had made it to pro duelist status before either of them had graduated. Sure, it hadn’t been the best way. There’s a lot he wished had gone differently. But he had made it, and he was still holding the job. He wasn’t undefeated (far from it) and certainly wasn’t the best, but he was still a pro duelist, and still dueling regularly. Right now he and Jesse were watching a recording of his next opponent, not an uncommon activity for the two of them to do together. Jaden joined in when he was around as well. This sort of thing was good for picking apart opponent’s strategies, building counter-strategies, and planning around it all. Chazz was a pro duelist, and getting fairly good at this part of it with practice. However, Jesse was a well-respected duelist in his own right, even before they had met. Chazz trusted his judgement and his dueling instincts. They made a good team for this.

Jesse and Chazz knew each other during their time at Duel Academy, and certainly had gotten along well enough. But back then, a large part of their friendship revolved around their mutual friendship with Jaden. Before that, they’d known of each other at North Academy, which...wasn’t always the best place for fostering strong relationships. Since graduating, however, Jesse and Chazz ran into each other again by coincidence, and started keeping in contact. Started building their own friendship. The two of them ended up moving into an apartment together, after a lot of talking and deliberating. Jaden technically lived there with them, but he was gone more often than not. Their apartment was where Chazz and Jesse were in their apartment now. It wasn’t overly spacious, it didn’t have a lot in it yet in terms of decoration or extra furniture, but it worked. It was home.

“Looks like his strategy revolves around those new monsters,” Jesse commented. “What are they called again? Sink On monsters?”

“Synchro,” Chazz corrected him. “They’re getting more popular, inside and outside pro dueling. Alexis told me the other day they’re going to start a new class for them at Duel Academy.”

“I don’t blame ‘em. It seems pretty complicated.” Jesse leaned back in the couch. “But these monsters seem pretty powerful. I mean, you can bring ‘em outta your extra deck without Polymerization.”

“Yeah, but the materials all have to all be on the field first. It’s a tradeoff.” Chazz snorted again. “These new Synchro Monsters don’t intimidate me. They’re nothing Armed Dragon or VWXYZ Dragon Catapault can’t handle.”

“What about us, boss?” Ojama Yellow asked as the Ojama brothers appeared beside Chazz. “We’re your best monsters! We can handle anything, right?”

“As if! You couldn’t handle a Kuriboh in defense position!” Chazz retorted, waving them away. With a poof, the Ojamas disappeared. Chazz rolled his eyes and slid his now raised arm around Jesse’s shoulders. “Ojama King might not be good for this type of strategy. Some Synchro Monsters have even more attack points than his defense points, and I don’t want to risk not being able to bring him out before they get all Synchro Summon happy.”

“Depends on the cards he’s got.” Jesse paused the video so that they could both read the name of a card the duelist had just played. “If he can pull out strong Synchro Monsters really fast, Armed Dragon and its special abilities might be your best bet. If not, Ojama King and Ojama Knight could prevent him from pulling it off at all. Or you can use the dragon catapult things to be faster than he is. Those don’t rely on Polymerization.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, yeah,” Chazz agreed as Jesse hit play again. “Those sound like good strategies. Let’s figure out what he’s got.”

In the end, they went with the Armed Dragon strategy. While Chazz kept an eye on the duel recording, Jesse got up temporarily to grab Chazz’s Armed Dragon deck. Once he found it, he sat down next to Chazz again. Jesse took inventory on which cards were in the deck while Chazz took note of his future opponent’s strategies. Together, they talked out what cards would be best for the duel, what changes to make in Chazz’s lineup.

“This is the worst,” Chazz grumbled as he sank down into the couch. About half the duel recording had played now. Jesse had gone through all of the deck, they were just talking out details at this point.

“Yeah, I know, this is your least favorite part.” Jesse chuckled. “That’s what you got me here for. It’s less boring for you that way.”

“I know, you love this stuff,” Chazz huffed. “I’ll never understand how you’re so into going over your deck, but it helps. I can’t complain. This is a way bigger part of pro dueling than it should be.” He glanced at Jesse, who was still burying himself in the cards, out of the corner of his eye. “You’re good at this stuff, too. And there’s no denying you’re a skilled duelist. You could go pro easily, you know. You’d do well.”

Jesse blinked. “You think so?” Compliments from Chazz himself weren’t exactly common. He wasn’t about to point it out though, even through gentle teasing. Chazz gave out compliments more these days than he used to, and Jesse didn’t want to discourage him. But it felt genuinely nice.

Ever since graduation, Jesse had been undecided on his career path. Which, most people thought, had been ridiculous. Jesse took duels by storm in school, had won international competitions, was even ranked highly in terms of all-time duelists by Pegasus himself. And yet, it hadn’t felt right to make dueling into a career at the time. Nothing really had. That last year of school had held too many dangerous situations, too many life threatening duels for him. At the very least he needed a break. Time to think things over, to detach himself from everything that had happened. He’d taken a temporary part-time job working at a card shop in the meantime. He’d only recently gotten into dueling again, but nothing overly competitive or career-focused.

If Jesse had said that the thought of becoming a pro duelist hadn’t crossed his mind, it’s be the biggest lie he’d ever told. It was his dream in school. He still thought about it a lot now. There was honestly little doubt in his mind that he’d attempt it eventually. The only question was when. When would he be ready? Was he ready for it now?

Chazz nodded. “I’m not saying you have to do it now, or anything. You can do whatever you want. Just, if you wanted to, I think you could do it.”

The pro dueling world was incredibly tough. Chazz knew that better than most. If he thought Jesse could handle it, well, Jesse was mostly inclined to believe him.

Ruby Carbuncle trilled on top of Jesse’s head. Chazz wasn’t the only one supporting that position.

“In that case...” Jesse smiled at Chazz. “I have to at least think about it, then.”

* * *

 

After a lot more thought, more discussions, and weighing pros and cons, Jesse reached the decision to try to go pro. And he succeeded. Not only did he make it to pro duelist status, he was able to hold on to his career, too.

When Chazz had first joined the pro dueling world, he’d been introduced in an Ojama costume with a ridiculous name. Jesse hadn’t been dressed so ridiculously, but he did have to go through making a debut as the “Rainbow Ghost”. Chazz had been able to drop the costume and name very quickly, though, and Jesse found himself following that pattern.

This new change worked out well for both of them. Now that they were both pros, they worked more closely together. Jesse continued to help Chazz prepare for his duels, and Chazz began to do the same. Jesse found himself much happier than he had been at the card shop; not that the shop was a bad place to work, but he’d needed a change. He needed a duel.

It worked out well for both of them, until Jesse and Chazz were scheduled to be each other’s opponents in their next duel.

“Ain’t this, I dunno, a conflict of interest or something?” Jesse asked, studying the announcement. “They do know that we’re—“

“They should know, anyway. I doubt they care,” Chazz answered with a shrug.

“Well...now what? How’re we supposed to get ready for the duel if we’re dueling each other?” Jesse finally looked away from the announcement, choosing to stare at Chazz instead.

“Looks like we have to work alone this time.” Chazz shrugged once more.

So, that’s why they did. They wandered into separate parts of the apartment, silently pored over their cards. There was no need to try to study each other’s strategies; they were both well aware by now. Chazz had a few different strategies he went between, but he was usually pretty consistent with them. Jesse, on the other hand, had never looked back after obtaining the Crystal Beasts, and then Rainbow Dragon. They were his family. He kept his old deck around, sure, but his old insect deck very rarely saw use anymore. While this made him predictable, he was still hard to beat. His cards were powerful, his combos strong, and all of it formed around a strong, trusting bond. So, rather than trying to study each other’s strategies, since they were well aware, they simply tried to figure out the best way to counter each other.

There was plenty of opportunity for them to cheat, sneak a peak at each other’s deck, but each knew the other wouldn’t do that. Besides, there was no need. By the time they went to bed that night, both their decks were hidden away, secure from prying eyes.

Both of them arrived to their match on time. It felt...a little unprofessional(?) perhaps to show up there together, at the same time. But it couldn’t be helped. Jesse would’ve gotten lost and ended up on the other side of Domino otherwise.

“You ready, Anderson?” Chazz called out from his side of the field. “It’s go time.”

“Ready when you are,” Jesse responded from his side of the field. “Make sure to Chazz it up for this one!”

The cards in this duel started flying fast, and they didn’t slow down.

“I play the field spell Ojama Country!”

“When this monster attacks, it gains 400 attack points!”

Both duelists kept pace with each other, neither backing down nor hesitating.

“I activate Ojama Delta Hurricane!”

“Now it’s time for my trap: Crystal Counter!”

They were pretty evenly matched, and the crowd was roaring with excitement.

“Since I have four Crystal Beasts in my Spell and Trap Zone, I can activate the spell Crystal Abundance!”

“Ojama Knight prevents you from using up to two spots in your Monster Zone!”

Anything less than their best would be an insult.

“Ojama King attacks you directly! You go bye bye!”

“Not so fast! I activate Rainbow Life!”

“I place one monster face down and end my turn.”

“By cutting her attack in points in half, Amethyst Cat can attack you directly!”

The duel made one thing clear.

“I summon Rainbow Dragon!”

It didn’t matter to Jesse whether he won or lost. Becoming a pro duelist, dueling again, was more than worth it.


	2. Pixie Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Jesse accidentally overbooks himself, Chazz begrudgingly offers to help by taking on his babysitting commitment. Chazz gets to meet two twins, and there's more to them than meets the eye...

Chazz sat on the couch, wrapped in an expensive black bathrobe, hunched over a cup of coffee at 9 am as he skimmed through the news.

Chazz ‘The Chazz’ Princeton was many things. A former Obelisk Blue at Duel Academy, pro duelist, and unfortunate partner to the most annoying duel spirits that could ever exist, to name a few. One thing he was not, was a morning person.

It was a routine he forced himself into. Adult life was full of excuses to make you wake up at ungodly hours of the morning, and as much as he hated it, Chazz wasn’t exempt from that. Many of his duels were early morning duels. (Not by choice, absolutely not.) Chazz didn’t have duels every day, but he figured continuously waking up early when he didn’t have to would make it easier when he did have to. His plan...was maybe almost working.

Right now, Chazz was in the middle of his morning routine. He’d already checked Snapchat to see Jaden’s semi-daily update that he would sometimes give ~~at the strong insistence of Jesse and Chazz~~. Today, it was a colder region. Huh. He’d already turned on the TV for the weather forecast. There was a chance of snow, decently chilly temperatures all day, he’d have to dress warm. He was checking the news mostly out of curiosity now. Soon he’d properly get ready for the day, since he had a few errands to run that he wanted to get over with.

Tomorrow, Jesse had a duel scheduled for the early afternoon. Chazz wanted to be there to watch that, scope out the strategies used by Jesse’s competition. If he could get everything done today, it would be all the more easier.

Chazz looked up as Jesse, bundled up in pajamas covered in Kuriboh designs, stumbled into the kitchen. Jesse grabbed a donut out from the box and stared at the glass of apple juice he poured like it personally offended him. Wow, he was just barely trying to eat healthy.

”Hey, what’s up with you?” Chazz asked as he continued studying Jesse’s face.

”Couldn’t sleep,” Jesse mumbled through his donut. He tried to hold eye contact with Chazz for about a second. Apparently, it was too hard at the moment. He stared back into the apple juice.

”It’ll be a little cold out today,” Chazz warned him. “Are you planning on going out?”

Jesse shook his head. “Not for awhile, anyway, ain’t feeling up to it. I gotta get ready for—“

He froze. Chazz frowned.

”My duel’s tomorrow, right?” Jesse asked.

”Yeah, in the afternoon. One of the better time slots,” Chazz answered.

”Shoot.” Jesse took a long drink of apple juice. “I’m supposed to babysit then. You remember the twins?”

Chazz nodded. Not that he’d personally met the twins, but... The twins were young, probably around ten or so. One of their parents was some distant relative of Jesse’s, Jesse didn’t seem to remember how exactly they were related. The parents were busy a lot, almost always out of town. They’d gotten into contact with Jesse not too long ago, and Jesse had spent a fair amount of time babysitting them ever since. Usually he went over to the apartment the twins lived in to watch them. It had been strange at the time, since Jesse barely kept in contact with anyone in his biological family. It worked, though; the parents paid Jesse a lot for the trouble, Jesse adored the twins, and apparently the twins loved Jesse.

What were the twins’ names again? Luna and Leo? At the moment, it seemed like Jesse had gotten his dates mixed up and scheduled himself for two things at once.

”What’re you gonna do? It’s not like you can take the kids to the duel,” Chazz pointed out.

”I know, I know,” Jesse whined. He tugged at his hair with one hand, holding onto his breakfast with the other. “I don’t want to just cancel, though. This one was kind of an emergency and the kids need someone, it’d be rude if I just...”

”You want me to help?” Chazz offered

Jesse stared at him.

”What? Sure, I’m not a huge fan of kids, but I can handle them for a couple of hours,” Chazz protested. “I can feed them lunch and have them watch you duel on TV or something. When you get back you can take over. How bad could it go?”

Jesse nodded. “That could work...I could bring them over here. They could probably use a change in scenery, to be honest. You sure you don’t mind?”

”I’m not gonna lie and say no, but it’ll be fine.” Chazz shrugged. “I’ll survive. Don’t worry about it. You focus on your duel.”

”Well, in that case, I’ll make sure to save you from the twins as soon as I can.” Jesse laughed. “They’re good kids, but they can be a handful sometimes.”

* * *

Chazz sat on the couch, wrapped in an expensive black bathrobe, hunched over a cup of coffee at 9 am as he skimmed through the news.

Back to the morning routine, then. Deciding the last headline wasn't worth his time, Chazz rinsed out his coffee cup and started actually getting ready for the day. Today was the big day, Jesse's duel would be in a few hours and Chazz was supposed to watch the twins until the duel ended. Jesse had gotten himself up ungodly early (an hour ago) to pick up the twins and bring them over to their place. They'd probably get back in about an hour. Until then, Chazz had things to do, like shower and get dressed.

"So we're havin' company over today, right, boss?" Ojama Green floated over Chazz's shoulder the moment he finished putting on his signature black jacket, signaling he was ready for the day. 

"I'm so excited! It's always fun making a new friend," Ojama Yellow added, floating above Chazz's head. Ojama Black was floating somewhere between the other two, a big grin on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Chazz grumbled in response to Ojama Green. He waved the Ojama brothers away. "Listen, do me a favor and leave me alone for awhile, okay? I don't need these brats to think I'm crazy and talk to myself all the time."

Ojama Black began to make some kind of point, but Ojama Yellow shushed him. "No worries, boss! We can take a nice, long nap for awhile, right fellas?" The other two Ojamas nodded. "You won't even know we're here," Ojama Yellow promised as the three of them disappeared.

Huh, those three were being oddly cooperative. Chazz didn't really care why, and even if he did, he didn't have time to try to figure it out. As soon as the Ojamas disappeared, he could hear someone at the door. 

"--not as nice as your place, but I hope you don't mind staying here for a few hours," Jesse was saying as Chazz walked out to the main area of the apartment.

Jesse and the twins had arrived. Jesse was sticking to the door, unable to stick around for too long before he had to leave to prepare for his duel. The twins were making their way though the main area, checking everything out. They looked a lot more like Jesse than Chazz had expected, or, at least, their hair colors were similar. Both the twins had grown their hair out longer, though, and each had a backpack on with their own things inside.

"Of course not! This place is  _so_ cool!" One of the twins shouted, grinning back at Jesse. "We never get to visit, like,  _anyone_."

"We really appreciate the trip. Thank you," the other twin added.

"Oh!" Jesse locked eyes with Chazz, noticing him before he had the chance to say anything. "Chazz, this is Leo and Luna." Jesse gestured to each kid in order, letting him put the names to the faces. Between their different hair styles and clothes, it would be easy to remember who was who. "Luna, Leo. This is Chazz. He's going to watch you while I'm gone."

At the same time, Leo and Luna paused and looked up at Chazz. Chazz rolled his eyes and folded his arms in front of his chest. "That's 'The Chazz' to you two."

"Wait..." Leo mumbled, his eyes growing wide. "Are you...?" He turned around to look at Jesse. "Is he...?"

"You two behave now!" Jesse said with a laugh, not answering his question. "Don't give Chazz any trouble, you hear? I'll be back before you know it." With that, Jesse left and closed the door behind him.

Leo turned around to stare at Chazz one again. "You're  _The Chazz_? Chazz Princeton??" Leo ran forward and tackled one of Chazz's legs in a hug. "No way, I can't believe it!"

"Well, believe it," Chazz told Leo as he gently tried to pry Leo off of his leg. "There's only one Chazz, and that's me."

While Leo continued to struggle to stay attached to Chazz, Luna walked up to them calmly. She offered a hand to Chazz for a handshake. "Sorry about him, he's just...excited. We've heard a lot about you. Jesse likes to tell us stories about all his friends, and Leo's seen a bunch of your duels on TV."

"Don't worry about it," Chazz said with a snort. Successfully, he freed his leg from Leo and stood Leo next to Luna, then reciprocated her handshake. "The Chazz is used to meeting fans."

"Stop acting like you're embarrassed of me," Leo pouted at his sister. "I'm not just  _excited_ , I'm just...! I can't believe we're meeting a real pro duelist! And not just any pro duelist, either, Chazz is one of my favorites!"

"Jesse's a pro duelist now, too," Luna pointed out.

"That doesn't count, we already knew him before he went pro. And he's family. That's different," Leo retorted with all the confidence in the world.

Luna smiled. "You're right. I should be surprised you aren't exploding right now." 

Immediately, Leo's focus centered right back in on Chazz. "Hey, can we duel?"

"W--Right now?" Chazz blinked. "You two duel?"

"Yeah, of course we do!" Leo replied. Then he frowned, glancing over at Luna. "Well. Luna's really good at it, but she doesn't duel a ton anymore. I still like to, sometimes. It's a lot of fun."

"Besides, you're way better at it than I am," Luna added. She wrapped on of her arms around Leo's. "There's no need for me to duel when Leo's right here with me."

"Come on, that's not true!" Leo rolled his eyes, smiling. "You always used to beat me in every duel, you're the best, Luna."

That made sense, Chazz supposed. Jesse  _was_ working at a shop that sold Duel Monsters cards, he was a pro duelist now, and even before that he'd been a famous duelist. Though, Chazz had never seen Jesse take his deck with him when he watched the twins. He probably talked cards with Leo and helped him with his own deck, but nothing close to a duel. If he was fair, Jesse barely dueled at all outside the pro circuit these days. He was still getting back into it, after all.

"Well, if you really want to duel me..." Chazz trailed off. He ran a hand through his hair. "Just let me get my cards first."

"YES!" Leo punched his free arm in the air.

* * *

As it turned out, each of the twins had their own duel disks, which were adjustable to fit their smaller arms. (If the twins were believed, Jesse had found a local mechanic and got the duel disks modified. The twins' parents had meant well when they gave their kids the duel disks, but the duel disks had definitely been meant for full grown adults.) Once Chazz grabbed his own duel disk and one of his decks, the three of them found a place for their duel. This location ended up being outside, behind the apartment, since there wasn't a lot of room to duel inside. Chazz and Leo got ready to duel, with Luna spectating and prepared to cheer her brother on.

"Alright, then. You can take the first move," Chazz said once their decks were shuffled and everything was ready to go.

"Awesome!" Leo dug on of his heels into the pavement as he stared at the cards in his hand. "Okay, I'm going to play Morphtronic Radion in attack mode! When he's in attack mode, he gains 800 attack points." He put the card in the correct position, and sure enough, a hologram of Morphtronic Radion appeared in attack mode. Its normal attack of 1,000 was raised to 1,800. After that, Leo discarded a card to his graveyard. "Next I activate the effect of Gadget Driver from my hand. By sending it to the graveyard, I can put Morphtronic Radion in defense mode." Morphtronic Radion switched to defense mode. Its normal defense of 900 raised to 1,900. "When Morphtronic Radion's in defense mode, his defense points go up by 1,000! I place one card face down and end my turn."

Ah, the defense mode route. It looked like the kid wanted to play it safe. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be enough to stop The Chazz.

"Time to Chazz it up! My turn!" Chazz announced as he drew a card.

Briefly, Chazz peeked down at his cards. Well, with a hand like this, there was really only one thing to do. "First, I play the Field Spell Ojama Country. When there's an Ojama on the field, all monsters' attack points switch with their defense points."

"He's play the Ojamas!!" Leo told Luna with a grin. Luna smiled back at him.

"Next, I summon Ojama Yellow in attack mode." Chazz slapped the card in position, and there was the hologram of Ojama Yellow.

"...Huh?" Ojama Yellow glanced backwards at Chazz, rubbing at his eyes. "What's going on, Chazz? Are we dueling? I was in the middle of this great dream, and..."

As Ojama Yellow prattled on, Chazz glared briefly down at him but tried not to give him any attention otherwise. Yeah, he was dueling with the Ojamas, so what? He still had no reason to make these kids think he was one of those freaks that talked to his own cards. If he just ignored the Ojamas, Leo and Luna would be none the wiser.

Except.

Out of the corner of his eye, Chazz saw Luna staring at him closely. Quickly, she glanced at Ojama Yellow, then back at him.

”Chazz?” she asked, voice wavering. "Did you, um...Ojama Yellow just talk? Did you hear him?"

He blinked. Not the question he was expecting.

Ojama Yellow floated over to Chazz and poked his arm. "Chazz! I think she can see me!"

"Uh, don't worry about Luna," Leo began to explain to Chazz. "She used to, um, imagine she could see Duel Spirits, when we were younger. She still does it sometimes. She's not, like, weird or anything."

"It's  _not_ my imagination, Leo!" Luna protested, stamping one of her legs into the pavement. "Even if I'm the only one that sees them, I know they're there."

"So, wait." Chazz pointed at Ojama Yellow. "You can hear this freak?"

"Aw, he doesn't mean it," Ojama Yellow assured Luna. "Chazz love us, don't you, Chazz?" He tried to snuggle into Chazz's arm, but Chazz pushed him away.

Leo was still staring at Chazz and Luna, but Luna looked at Ojama Yellow and broke into a smile. "I can hear him! I don't think you're a freak, little guy, you seem super sweet!"

"Wait." Leo held his hands out in a stopping gesture, blinking. "What?" 

(Ojama Yellow floated to Chazz's ear and whispered about how Luna was now one of his new best friends (second only to Chazz, of course) and Chazz did his absolute best to ignore him.)

* * *

 

After the duel ended, the three of them went inside. Chazz quickly whipped up some sandwiches for the kids in the kitchen. Leo and Luna ate lunch in the main area, sitting on the couch, and at Leo's insistence Chazz put the remainder of Jesse's duel on the TV for them to watch as they ate. Sitting not to far away, Chazz brought out his phone and texted Jesse about how apparently  _Luna could talk to Duel Spirits, too._ Jesse wouldn't see the message for awhile, but Chazz figured he should probably know. Either way, Chazz didn't feel like waiting until the duel was over to start this whole explanation.

"So, seeing Duel Spirits isn't just a Luna thing? Or a Luna-and-you thing?" Leo asked, sprawling across half the couch during a lull in the duel action. By Chazz's estimations, the duel was probably almost over. Jesse, of course, would probably take the victory. "You promise my sister isn't weird?"

"Hey!" Luna puffed her cheeks out at him.

"Nah, we knew quite a few duelists at Duel Academy that could see different Duel Spirits, to different degrees," Chazz told them with a wave of the hand. "There's a whole bunch of them around here somewhere. I, unfortunately, have been cursed to end up with all the most annoying ones. It's more common than you think."

"Well..." Leo exchanged a look with Luna, who frowned. As Leo trailed off, Luna spoke up.

"I get sick kind of easily," Luna explained to Chazz. "It's part of the reason we don't leave home much. We're still pretty close to home and I feel fine, so I don't think spending time here will be bad for me. And I'm a lot better now than I used to be, anyway. But one time when I was little, I, um, was asleep for a really long time." She absently kicked her legs back and forth in the open air. "While I was, I had this, uh, weird dream? Where I went to the place where Duel Spirits lived. I met a lot of them and made a lot of friends. That's where I met Kuribon! One of them was this really pretty dragon, and she told me she and I would be really good friends someday, and that I would be some kind of hero someday. Which actually sounds really scary and stressful." Luna gave an awkward laugh. "But, that's just a weird dream I had. My imagination is still pretty wild, huh?"

"You had a dream you... 'went to the place where Duel Spirits lived'?" Chazz repeated.

"Uh-huh," Luna confirmed. "Is...is  _that_ weird? It...it probably wasn't really anything, dreams don't usually mean anything, do they?"

Chazz pinched the bridge of his nose. "I... It's not weird. You're not weird. It's not that, it's just. We're not having this conversation until Jesse gets back."

He pulled out his phone again, but this time, after sending about five more texts to Jesse, he didn't immediately put his phone away. Instead, he brought up a group conversation for his entire Duel Academy graduating class. It started up awhile back when a few people wanted to plan a class reunion, and Bastion put together the entire chat so everyone could be involved. More recently, it just became an easy way for people in their class to reconnect and talk to each other, and honestly, mostly just send each other memes. A few people outside their class were pulled in into the group conversation as well; Dr. Crowler was in the conversation, those he usually just lurked in the background with how busy he was with teaching, and there were some other close friends of their class, like Zane and Chumley.

Either way, this was the easiest way to find the person he wanted to talk to, rather than trying to get in a one-on-one conversation.

> **Duel Academy's Class of 2008**
> 
> **Chazz:** SLACKER!!!!!! WHERE ARE YOU
> 
> **Syrus:** which one
> 
> **Chazz:** slifer slacker  **@Jaden**

"You can see Duel Spirits," he said out loud to Luna, looking over his phone. "Do you have, like, a main one that you see? From your own deck, maybe, or just a card you have?"

"Oh! I never introduced you to Kuribon earlier." Luna looked around. "You can come out, Kuribon. It's okay, Chazz is nice."

A small brown puffball appeared by Luna's shoulder. It had big eyes, short legs, and a long tail (with a giant bow tied around it). This must've been Kuribon. Kuribon hummed, simultaneously staring at Chazz and trying really hard to blend in with the couch (and failing).

"Kuribon. Looks a lot like Winged Kuriboh," Chazz commented. "I doubt Winged Kuriboh's around right now, though." Moments later, that hypothesis was confirmed. If Winged Kuriboh were around, it would've shown up the second it heard its name.

"I hope Kuribon and I can meet Winged Kuriboh, someday," Luna said. She gave Kuribon a small pat. "And maybe some other Duel Spirits, too. Maybe not all at the same time, though. I'm not good with big groups."

"I don't blame you," Chazz mumbled, rolling his eyes. He wouldn't wish his gaggle of Duel Spirits on anyone. He glanced down at the group conversation again.

> **Duel Academy's Class of 2008**
> 
> **Chazz:** slifer slacker  **@Jaden**
> 
> **Aster:** yeah jaden Where Arf Thou
> 
> **Dr. Crowler:** If you were still a student here I would give you detention for that.
> 
> **Chazz:** slaaaaacker
> 
> **Jim:** sounds like someone's in trouble lol
> 
> **Chazz:** no he's fine i just need to talk to him
> 
> **Jim:** dang
> 
> **Chazz:**?
> 
> **Jim:** sorry it's just really funny when you guys fight here. nothing happens at home it's always the highlight of my day
> 
> **Chazz:**????????
> 
> **Jaden** **:** yo
> 
> **Chazz:** i need to call you later. i need to actually call you, it's important. 
> 
> **VIDEO CHAT INVITATION FROM: JADEN**
> 
> **Chazz:** later not now 
> 
> **Jaden:** yeah i'll make sure i have reception then
> 
> **Chazz:** cool don't miss it this time
> 
> **Atticus sent Pot_Of_Memes.png**

Leo stared intently at the television, forcing himself not to miss a second of the final play of the duel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey thanks for coming back, or for reading if this is your first time here! Chapter 1 was mostly setting some background and exposition stuff for the crossover, but here we are. It's a crossover between GX and 5DS! I love GX, I love 5DS, this is extremely self-indulgent and I'm very excited. Leo and Luna will definitely show up a lot throughout this, however long it goes, and hopefully other 5DS and GX characters will as well! We've had some nods to other possibly 5DS characters, and some vague nods to a character from the original Yugioh. I want to do something with that, eventually, too, but if that happens it'll be a separate story and this'll become a series. This has potential to crossover with a lot of different Yugioh series, and if it does, that's how it'll be resolved. This story is strictly for GX and 5DS. And for GX, 5DS, and any other Yugioh series that becomes involved, a small disclaimer: only the best characters will appear, I'm not involving anyone I don't like. And since this is all super AU at this point, a lot of really arbitrary stuff will be a little different, probably. I apologize if I like, get my facts wrong and mess up, because I am trying to do like research and stuff, but if I mess up that's my excuse hah
> 
> I know the tags are super confusing at this point, but, uh. All the future-related tags are for GX, and all the part-related tags are for 5DS, this is vaguely between GX and 5DS and squishes them closer together in the timeline. More stuff will definitely be added to tags as it becomes relevant. This could become a little tag heavy, and I apologize for that, too.
> 
> And, uh, if you hate the group chat, sorry! It won't be super prominent in this, it'll be a background thing in the story at most. I just wanted all the GX characters to be able to send each other memes and I figured it could be here. So if you hate it, it won't be around super often, if you like it, it'll probably show up again eventually.
> 
> Hope ya'll enjoyed!


	3. Power Converter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaden returns home, and meets the twins for the first time.

Jesse smiled as he put the pot of soup over the stove burner. He turned around and look out of the kitchen. Leo and Luna were over at his apartment once again, highly engrossed in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants while they sat on the couch. Ruby Carbuncle, though invisible to Leo, was curled up between the twins, purring.

Their parents seemed fairly happy with Jesse, and given he didn’t live too far away, they didn’t mind letting Leo and Luna go to his place. Luna seemed a lot healthier now than she used to be, after all. If she took a turn for the worst, he was more than willing to keep them at their own home. But for now, the kids loved visiting. Their parents were even willing to let the kids spend the night if Jesse was watching them for multiple days.

He still found it all a surprise, considering...well, it didn’t matter. As long as everyone else was happy, he was happy, too.

The soup didn't take long to finish cooking. Jesse poured soup into three separate bowls and gave the kids two of the bowls. One he kept for himself as he sat down next to them. He was trying to immerse himself in the episode when he heard a door open, and someone walk out towards the living area.

Jaden stepped into the living area of the apartment with a big yawn. He had a horrible case of bedhead going on, and he'd definitely fallen asleep in the same clothes he'd been wearing the day before. He looked more exhausted than he had before he fell asleep. Jesse frowned, and looked at the clock. It was a little after noon, which was late for most people to wake up, but...fairly standard for Jaden. He never seemed able to get enough sleep these days.

"Hey, Jay, I don't know if you want breakfast or lunch right now, but there's soup in the kitchen," Jesse let Jaden know as Jaden walked by. Jaden flashed him a thumbs up, entered the kitchen, and started putting together breakfast.

Leo pulled his attention away from the TV and leaned his head back over the couch. "Is that Jaden?" he asked.

Though the question was more directed at Jesse, Jaden was the one who replied. "That's me." The lack of enthusiasm in his voice was fairly easily explained by the grogginess that replaced it.

Luna and Leo both certainly knew of Jaden, but neither had had the chance to actually meet him yet. Jaden spent most of his time away from home, and this was the first time that he was home while the twins were there. However, since Chazz had first met the twins, the three of them and Jesse'd had many conversations related to dueling and duel spirits. Leo and Luna now both knew that Chazz and Jesse could both see duel spirits. Luna had gotten to meet Ruby and the Ojama trio (neither Jesse nor Chazz wanted to overwhelm her by introducing her to all the duel spirits around at once. She would meet the others soon enough). What Leo and Luna knew about Jaden was mostly from stories told by Chazz, though Jesse had told a few of his own as well. They knew Jaden could also see duel spirits, that Jaden also went to Duel Academy, and that Jaden had been one of if not the best duelist in their class. They were also aware Jaden lived with Jesse and Chazz. Jesse had assured the twins that they'd meet Jaden soon enough, once Jaden was able to spend some time at home. They both had looked forward to it with varying amounts of excitement.

"So, is it true you can see spirits, too?" Leo burst out.

"Yeah, that's right." Once Jaden had all his food together, he found his own spot to sit in in the main area of the apartment. "Chazz said that one of you two can see them, too." He pointed his fork at Luna. "Luna, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Luna twiddled her thumbs. 

"Cool." Jaden shoved a bite of food in his mouth, and continued to talk through the food, "From what I can tell, it's a much more common ability than it used to be. Still pretty rare, though. Most people can't see or hear them at all." He smiled at Leo. "I mean, it's pretty rad, being able to chill with Duel Spirits. But not being able to is cool, too. My buddies Sy and Bastion can't see them at all most of the time, but they're still two of the best duelists I know, and two of the best pals I've ever had. Having the ability isn't better or worse than not having it. We're all just different."

Leo stared back at him. “So, uh, what Duel Spirits do you know? That are, like, from your deck? Or, do they have to be in your deck? Maybe ypu just have to have the card? Um,” he floundered.

Jaden laughed. “I know what you mean. I’ve made quite a few friends by now, I think. Definitely not as many as Chazz. But I think you two will like Winged Kuriboh a lot.” 

As he spoke, Winged Kuriboh popped into the air next to him in its spirit form. It hummed happily to Jaden, then floated forward to investigate Leo and Luna. Leo, unable to see it at all, continued to stare at Jaden.

By this point, Jesse, Leo, and Luna were all done with their lunch. Jesse got up and grabbed everyone’s dishes. He started taking care of the dishes and putting them away, taking him in the kitchen. He continued listening to the conversation, but there wasn’t much for him to say. Jaden and the kids were holding up well with each other. Jaden and Luna had a lot they should talk about, and maybe they could help Leo understand more about Duel Spirits, too. Jesse was more than happy to listen, glad they were getting along.

”Hi, Winged Kuriboh!” Luna made eye contact with Winged Kuriboh and gasped. “He looks a lot like Kuribon!”

Kuribon peeked out from behind Luna’s shoulder. It stared at Winged Kuriboh, who himmed back happily. The two of them floated in silence, before Kuribon hummed back and floated forward to Winged Kuriboh. The two sang to each other, clearly curious about one another. 

“Yeah, that’s Kuribohs for you,” Jaden commented. “Looks like they’re becoming fast friends. That’s how Winged Kuriboh is, though. He gets along with everyone. He’s a good friend.”

In the kitchen, Jesse chuckled. Jaden and Winged Kuriboh had a lot in common. If he ever tried to explain it, though, Jaden would quickly deny it.

"You have other Duel Spirits, right?" Luna asked. She shifted her weight on the couch, trying to look behind him. "I can kind of, like, see something behind you, I think? It's kind of dark, but it kind of feels like a Duel Spirit..."

Jaden scratched the back of his head. "Uh, yeah, that one's...kind of shy. You can meet them later, but I think now's a little too soon."

"Okay." Luna nodded. "I don't mind. Just getting to meet Winged Kuriboh today is really cool."

Leo looked back and forth between Luna and Jaden. “I’m lost,” he sighed. “I wish I knew what was going on.”

"Oh!" Jaden snapped his fingers together. "Hold on." He shoved the rest of his food in his mouth and began poking around the apartment. Leo and Luna watched him, occasionally sharing confused glances. Jesse finished his work with the dishes and reentered the living area. After a few minutes, Jaden successfully located what he was looking for: his duel disk, which had been somehow left under the couch. 

"Did you really--?" Jesse began to ask.

"Hey, I just woke up, cut me some slack," Jaden protested with a laugh. Jesse laughed along with him.

"So...what are you doing?" Leo questioned. "What do you need your duel disk for?"

"Well, I mostly just needed my deck. Any duel disk would've worked really, but..." Jaden shrugged. A card slid out from his duel disk's deck slot; Jaden grabbed it and placed it face-up in the Monster Zone. Winged Kuriboh appeared to Leo where its Duel Spirit form was currently floating. Neither of the twins seemed to notice when Jaden's eyes changed from their normal brown color.

Leo slumped down where he sat on the couch. "I already know that duel disks can make holograms from the cards," he pointed out. "I have a duel disk. I've dueled before."

Winged Kuriboh looked away from Kuribon, humming thoughtfully. It flew over to Leo and landed gently on its head.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, too," Leo mumbled. Suddenly, he sat up straight, blinking. "Wait. The holograms don't usually talk, or like, move unless they're attacking." He reached up to poke Winged Kuriboh and squeaked. "I can feel it!"

Jaden grinned at him. "I can...what did they call it? 'Materialize Duel Spirits'? Not for too long, of course, but anyone can see them and interact with them. It's easiest with my own cards, but sometimes it works with other people's cards, too." He glanced over at Luna. "Mind if I try with Kuribon?"

"Please!" Luna pulled Kuribon's card out of her pocket. She didn't have all of her cards with her, but she had a few of her favorites. She handed the card to Jaden. "Here you go!"

Jaden placed Kuribon on the duel disk. Leo gasped as Kuribon appeared in front of him. 

"So, uh, Leo, is the machine dragon back there yours?" Jaden looked back at the empty air behind Leo. "What's your name, pal? Power Tool Dragon?"

"Power Tool Dragon's my favorite card!" Leo told him.

Jaden looked back down at him. "You want me to try with Power Tool Dragon? Though, uh, he might not fit in here. We might have to go outside for that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm taking a lot of liberties with a lot of things here. Especially with the food. Mostly with the food. Please forgive me.
> 
> Jaden's home!!!!!!!!! Hope ya'll enjoyed! Ya'll can find me on tumblr [here](http://datanamines.tumblr.com) if you ever want to talk about this fic or something, I love talking about this fic.


	4. Hero Pressure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaden and Luna revisit an old dream from the distant past. Or... _was_ it just a dream?

Jaden sat cross-legged on the ground outside, Luna sitting next to him. He frowned. “I know this won’t be fun to talk about, and it might bring up some bad memories. But, when you first got really sick...you had a dream, right?”

The two of them were alone outside. Leo was busy, having engaged himself in a duel, and Jesse and Chazz were with him. It kept Jaden’s conversation with Luna private, and he preferred it that way. It wasn’t just about him not being a big fan of crowds anymore. He still wasn’t sure how Leo was handling all the Duel Spirits stuff; from what Jaden could tell, Leo was still getting used to it all not just being Luna’s imagination. He also didn’t want to make Luna uncomfortable by talking about this in front of everyone. Hey, if she didn’t want to talk about it at all, that was fine, too. But Jaden still felt he should at least try.

Luna nodded. “It’s okay. I don't remember a lot about it, but it was really nice,” she told him. “I was in a big, pretty forest. I didn’t know where I was, but it wasn’t scary. I wasn’t able to go outside a lot, so it was actually kind of fun. And I got to make a bunch of friends in my dream, too.”

”Friends? Like who?” Jaden asked. Mentally, he was trying to go through some kind of checklist, with Yubel’s help. Was it a regular dream, or something more like Chazz had seemed to think? And if it was more than a dream, where did she go? This was all sort of his domain now. If there was something more here, he would be the one who was mostly likely to figure it out.

”Well, Kuribon, for sure,” Luna said. Kuribon’s Duel Spirit sang happily from its spot in her lap. “There were really friendly monsters there, but I don’t remember all of their names. Um...oh! There was a really big dragon, and she was super pretty!”

”A dragon, huh?” Jaden tilted his head. Dragons, Kuribon... “Do you remember anything else happening in this dream?”

”I played with my friends a lot.” Luna scratched an itch on her forehead. On Luna's part, she was definitely putting more thought into this than when it was initially brought up. At the time, she probably hadn't thought much of it, and just needed something to tell Chazz. Though, apparently, most of what she said was at least routed in truth. “And I think the dragon talked to me. I think her name was...Ancient Fairy Dragon?”

"Huh." Jaden frowned, still trying to think it all out. Yubel, unfortunately, didn't have a complete knowledge of all of the dimensions in the Spirit World. However, there was definitely at least one dimension inhabited by fairies, and definitely at least one dimension that was primarily filled with forests. Yubel seemed to have the beginnings of an idea about all of this in mind. Jaden looked down at Luna. "Have you ever wanted to go there again? I mean, if it wasn't just a dream?" he asked.

"I don't remember most of my dream really well," Luna confessed. She looked up at him. "Most of it was fun. But at the end, I remember feeling really scared. I don't remember why. Maybe I was afraid I wouldn't be able to leave, and I'd be stuck there forever. It might've been related to Ancient Fairy Dragon-- I... I think she wanted me to make a promise? I don't think I felt capable of what she wanted me to do. And I missed Leo. I didn't feel safe without him, and he's the best friend I have. I was really scared and I wanted to go home. It was a lot of fun there, and it'd be fun to see all my friends there again, Ancient Fairy Dragon, too. But I don't want to be trapped there, or scared, or not be good enough."

Jaden folded his hands together. "What if you knew you would be able to leave whenever you wanted? Or if you weren't by yourself, and you didn't have to do anything alone? Take out the scary parts and just have all the fun stuff."

"It sounds like you don't think it's a dream," Luna pointed out with a frown. "Do you think that was a real place, and we could go there?"

"Well...I think so. I haven't worked it all out yet myself," Jaden admitted. “But I think that you might have...actually gone to that place. And if you did, I think we could go there again, but...only if you want to, and you can leave anytime you want. I won’t push you. I’m just trying to figure out what place it is, and I figured I’d offer in case you ever wanted to visit.”

”If you think it’s a real place, does that mean there’s place where monsters are real?” Luna asked. “Outside of what you do, anyway.”

Jaden nodded. “There’s twelve of them, actually,” he explained. “They’re mostly inhabited by duel monsters, but it’s not unheard of for humans to be able to visit. I’ve been to a few of them before. It was an accident the first couple of times, at least.”

 “You have? What was it like when you went?”

Jaden looked away. “It was...eventful,” he said flatly. “I definitely didn’t go to the same world you did. Yours sounds a lot more peaceful; you probably shouldn't go to where I ended up."

There was no reason for the twins to know much about or to ever visit Dark World. Jaden wouldn’t wish the desert dinension on anyone, let alone them, either.

At that, Luna stood up next to him. “If you think we can go, I think it would be fun to visit. Could we do it now?”

”Now?” Jaden repeated. He glanced up at her and smiled sheepishly. “I can try, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work out.”

Luna held a hand out to Jaden. He accepted the offer, holding her hand as he prepared to get up. As their hands touched, however, he paused. Something in his mind clicked. 

The Ancient Forest. Luna had some sort of mental connection to it; he could feel it off of her now that they’d made contact. Of course, it all made sense. All the pieces clicked together. Once he was standing, he grinned.

”Maybe we’ll get there after all.” He looked around at the empty air. “Yo, Winged Kuriboh, you here? I could use your help on this one, pal.”

At the sound of its name, Winged Kuriboh appeared with a happy chirp.

Yubel, Winged Kuriboh, nor Jaden themselves held any sort of connection to the Ancient Forest. But they could feel its presence from Luna, and between Winged Kuriboh and Yubel they were able to get it to work. A tall, white portal opened up in front of them. Jaden could almost hear the wind rustling the trees on the other side, and knew they had the right place. 

“Don’t forget, we can leave whenever you want,” he reminded Luna gently. “Just say the word.”

Luna nodded, squeezing his hand with her own. Jaden kept a firm hold on her hand as well. Together, they entered the Ancient Forest.

* * *

By this point, Jaden had visited more than his fair share of the dinensions in the Spirit World. After he fused with Yubel, some of those visits were just him getting used to his new powers. Other visits were to deal with the unceasing threat of the Light of Destruction, which was always croping up in some corner of some dimension to try to wreak havoc. Yet, no dimension he’d visited thus far was quite like the Ancient Forest.

Many parts of the Spirit World were simply not meant for human life. It was the nature of the Spirit World. The dimensions were fit for the Duel Spirits that lived there; earth elementals had thrived in the desert, while Duel Academy had struggled to survive in the same place. The Ancient Forest, however, felt kind and nurturing. Jaden couldn’t say much about food from a glance, but there was plant life and water here. It felt safe, and the Duel Spirits here seemed to feel the same.

It was a far cry from Dark World, that was for sure. And despite how Jaden had managed to...thrive in Dark World for a time, that was one of the highest compliments he could pay any part of the Spirit World. He was glad Luna was connected to a place like this. He wouldn’t wish Dark World on anyone.

Luna stared at the scenery around her. “I remember it all clearly now. I can’t believe we’re actually here,” she whispered. “I forgot how pretty this place is.”

”It sure is nice here,” Jaden agreed. “Perfect place for a nap, or to just chill.” He smirked as, internally, he could tell Yubel was rolling their eyes at his unspoken question of ‘why couldn’t Duel Academy have been sent here instead?’

A few Duel Spirits, clearly native to the region, swarmed Luna. Kuribon trilled as it bumped itself against her arm. She smiled at them all. “Hey, guys, long time no see! I missed you all, too.”

While Luna caught up with her old friends, Jaden did a brief scan of the dimension, or at least what he could detect of it. There didn’t seem to be any signs of the Light of Destruction, nor had there been for some time. That was good, though now that he knew how to access the Ancient Forest, he would keep an eye on it just in case. There was a form of light here, but not any destructive or dangerous kind. In fact, this light seemed good, like it was helping keep everyone here safe, which was even better.

Once in awhile, Jaden kept an eye out for Nightshroud, too, and any signs of it trying to return. He could sense the hold it had here awhile back, when just about everything and everywhere had fallen to Nightshroud. Thankfully, there was nothing more recent. Nightshroud was gone.

A voice pulled Jaden out of his mental search, and out of his thoughts.

"It seems you have finally returned."

Luna looked up and Jaden looked ahead. A dragon was flying towards the two of them, giant and beautiful. She held her head high as she approached. Jaden could feel light coming off her in waves, though thankfully, it still wasn't the bad kind of light.

"I wasn't sure you would come back, after you broke your promise so long ago," the dragon commented, its focus completely on Luna.

Luna fidgeted under the dragon's attention. "I, I just...I wasn't ready. I didn't want to fail you. And I missed my brother."

"By leaving, you nearly  _did_ fail us," the dragon pointed out. "Thankfully, the approaching evil hasn't made its move yet. There is still time."

"I was really lonely when I came here before," Luna told her. "It felt like...my family didn't really care if I was around. But when I was separated from Leo, I started to really appreciate how much he meant to me. And that I meant a lot to him, too. He was always supposed to be there to protect me, but... I didn't feel like I could do this on my own. Even now, I still don't."

"You're more than capable," the dragon assured her. "This world wouldn't have chosen you,  _I_ wouldn't have chosen you, if there was a single doubt. Do not reject your connection to this world. By simply being yourself, you can keep your friends here safe, and everyone else that calls this place home as well."

"I'll do my best, but..." Luna mumbled, looking away.

Well, this was as good a time as any to step in. Jaden took a step forward, waving. "Hey! You're the dragon, right?" He could hear Yubel snark in his mind,  _It's painfully obvious that this is Ancient Fairy Dragon_. "I've got a bone to pick with you. Or, uh, maybe a scale?"

Ancient Fairy Dragon turned to look him in the eye as she measured him up. She bristled. "How did a creature of darkness get here?"

"Aw, come on. You know as well as I do that I'm not part of the bad kind of darkness. Sort of like how you're not a spirit of the bad kind of light." Ancient Fairy Dragon gave no answer. Definitely the wrong response. He swallowed and held his hands up in surrender. "Or maybe not?" he backpedaled. "I promise, I'm not here to hurt anyone. I helped Luna get back here. I just wanna talk, man, I swear."

"Then we'll talk," Ancient Fairy Dragon decided. "And after that, it may be best if you leave. No matter what you say, I can't risk this world falling into darkness. No matter how...friendly the darkness may pretend to be."

Jaden nodded. "Fair, fair." Still unwilling to move his hands, Jaden jerked his head in Luna's direction. "So, what exactly is all this about Luna and a promise? I asked her about it earlier, but she couldn't really remember until we got here."

"Perhaps that wasn't unintentional on her part," the dragon commented. Well, thinking back, Chazz had mentioned that  _Leo_ was the one who brought this all up first, hadn't he? Though, to be fair, Leo had seemed to believe Luna was imagining it all before he realized Chazz could see Duel Spirits, too. "There is a darkness approaching. A great evil. Luna's mind is connected to our world; it allows her mind to come here, but the connection goes beyond that. By being here, the light and good in Luna's heart and mind protects this world from anything that threatens it. If she were to stay here, I knew this we would be safe from the incoming evil. I asked her to protect us, and she promised she would stay here and keep us safe. Then she left us. We are lucky the evil has not taken over our home in the time that has passed."

"What kind of 'evil'?" Jaden pressed.

"I cannot be certain. Which is why I am cautious of you, yet still uncertain in your role in all of this. Any form of darkness must be treated the same way." Ancient Fairy Dragon tilted her head. "If you are imagining evils of the past, they are of the past. Darkness did try to pull everyone here down recently, but it is finished. I'm afraid that what the future has in store for us isn't like anything that's happened in your time."

"And, uh." Jaden glanced over at Luna. "How old were you when you were here before? Three?"

Luna shrugged.

Jaden stared back up at Ancient Fairy Dragon, who was still staring him down. He tried to match up to her in confidence, but he was determined not to make a wrong move here. He wasn't here to pick any fights. "You can't just ask a three-year-old to throw her life away and save the world. She was way too young to make that kind of decision. She still  _is_."

"Time was running out, and it runs shorter still," Ancient Fairy Dragon answered. "Waiting only ensures our downfall. I only asked her to do what needed to be done. There was no other choice."

"I mean, my first Spirit Partner knew I had a destiny, too, and I'm not saying she dealt with it the best way, either. But she didn't force me to deal the second I learned to talk, she just tried to help, in her own way," Jaden said, waving his hands through the air. He continued to hold his hands up. Yubel had at least a thousand things to say to that, but he forced himself to ignore them all for now. "You definitely needed her help, I get that. But there had to be another way."

"There was no other choice. Time's running out. It had to be done," Ancient Fairy Dragon repeated.

Jaden frowned. "But the threat wasn't even there yet when you asked. Did she actually have to stay there until that threat arrived, and  _then_ keep sticking around until it decided to quit? By the time that happened, she might not have had anything to go back to when it was over. You're clearly one of her Spirit Partners, that can't be what you want."

Ancient Fairy Dragon reared back, anger flaring in her expression. Something tugged at Jaden's jacket; he looked down to see Luna had walked over to him. "Going over the past like this isn't going to help anyone," she told him.

Jaden glanced up at Ancient Fairy Dragon, then back down at her. "That's true." He crouched down beside her. "Hey, uh. Ignore all the specific stuff you were supposed to do, or even that you thought you had to do. In general, would you want to keep this world safe?"

Luna frowned, but nodded. "I have a lot of friends here, and...everyone here deserves the peace they have now. But I...I'm still I won't be able to do it."

Jaden nodded, and stood back up, his hands falling into his pants' pockets. When he looked up at Ancient Fairy Dragon, something was different.

Some of that hostility was now gone. She was still staring down at him, but her gaze was a bit softer.

"Luna still wants your world to be safe," Jaden reiterated. "Her mind is connected to the Ancient Forest. I can try to help her control her ability to go back and forth between here and the world we're from. As long as she's able to know when the 'evil' is about to get here, she shouldn't have to stay until that time comes, right?" He nudged Luna lightly with his hip. "I, uh, have a lot going on, so I'm not always able to be around Domino a lot. But you've got some kind of form of long-distance communication, right? We can set it up so you can talk to me if there's some kind of emergency, and we can get this all figured out."

"I see that her mind is not her only way of entering the Spirit World, either." The dragon looked down at Luna. "I understand. I can agree to that, as long as she is here when we need her."

"I won't let you down," Luna told her.

"She's got friends who care about her, too," Jaden added, towards Ancient Fairy Dragon once more. "She doesn't have to do this alone, does she? Her friends should be able to help her, too. It doesn't have to be me. I know you can't trust me and I understand that. I'll stay away if that's what you want, you don't have to see me again. But Leo's as good and kind as Luna, and Jesse's got everything you're looking for and more in him. Chazz can be prickly on the outside, but you can trust him, too. There's no reason Luna has to do this all alone, is there?"

"I've been around a long time. But I was never alone, and I never had to fight alone," Ancient Fairy Dragon answered. "There is strength in numbers, and even greater strength in friendship. Your friends are welcome to help you in this fight, Luna. I still cannot trust someone from the dark, unfortunately, but we could certainly benefit from the help of anyone else."

"Sweet!" Jaden grinned down at Luna, who smiled back at him. "We should probably go back soon, but we can definitely make this work."

"Yeah!" Luna agreed. "If I'm not alone, I'm sure we can do it."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter is probably going to be more of a change in gears but like, i haven't decided entirely how the plot of 5ds is going to fit into all this, since this we're supposedly pre-5ds at this point. like. i've definitely changed up how the ancient forest plotline works out, since i'm pretty sure that in 5ds at this point ancient fairy dragon would still be trapped and darkness would have invaded the forest already. since i've changed it here, i don't know if i'll ever resolve the plotline or how i will if i do, i'm not planning on ancient fairy dragon being anything major. but i also have ideas rummaging in my brain of how this universe could be pulled into the 5ds season 1 plot, and i'm not sure i'll go that route, or if i want to. that remains to be seen.
> 
> This is a callout at Ancient Fairy Dragon. Not that I'm saying that like how 5ds handled this should've been different, or that I'm saying anything like, super against Ancient Fairy Dragon? Ancient Fairy Dragon is chill, that was a cool subplot, I love Luna (in theory), but like. Three-year-olds shouldn't have to be forced into these kinds of situations and decisions? Maybe this is more of a callout at the situation. Ancient Fairy Dragon is trying her best.
> 
> And, uh, since Yubel's gonna be more important and involved here (very) soon, we might as well get this one out of the way so that it's less confusing now and later on. Since everything GX and 5DS here is based mostly on the dub, and Yubel is a special case in all that, Yubel here has kind of become a mix of like, sub and dub aspects, sort of a combination of interpretations. Mostly because dub Yubel is pretty primarily female, and I'm not so much about that life. Yubel here is non-binary and goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns. It's not like they like, switch between the two here, just like, both are fine simultaneously and always. You'll see both used here, and this isn't going to be brought up in the story, so just, know that both are valid. Both sets are fine. You're free to refer to Yubel however you want, my man. After doing a lot of research and thinking on the matter, this is just how I've decided to go about it.
> 
> Hope ya'll enjoyed!


	5. The Ultimate Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesse finds himself unable to get any quality sleep for the night. It's soon clear that he's not the only one.

Jesse opened his eyes as he was shot out of sleep.

A horrible, low feeling swam in his gut. He stared off into the darkness. He knew he would be left behind sooner or later. Everyone liked to compare him to Jaden, but it was only a matter of time before they realized that Jesse really couldn’t compare. Ever since Jesse first showed up at the main branch of Duel Academy, his attempts to help everyone never seemed good enough. He did nothing at best, but usually his ‘help’ just made things worse. It was clear he had nothing to offer. All his friends were better than he was. How long would it be before he was alone, just like he’d been at North Academy? They’ll leave you, Jesse, you’re not worth it. You—

The sound of Chazz’s snores helped anchor Jesse in the present. In reality.

It was just a dream, it had to be. This wasn’t the first time he’d woken up like this. Back at Duel Academy, when Nightshroud had tried to pull the world to darkness, everyone had seen bleak visions of a hopeless future. Jesse hadn’t been an exception to that. He lost when dueling against Nightshroud and had been pulled under like the rest. He still had dreams from it now, where he even saw all the same futures and possibilities he had back then. And he knew he wasn’t the only one. But none of it was real. Life had sure turned out well for someone whose future was supposed to be lonely and pointless.

None of it was real. But that didn’t mean that those visions didn’t come back to haunt him, or that it didn’t still hurt. 

Jesse glanced over at the clock, numbers dimly glowing on its surface. Three past midnight. He knew from experience it would take some time to fall asleep again. His mouth was dry. Maybe a warm drink would help.

Quietly, he got out of bed and wandered towards the kitchen. He was vaguely aware of something rustling nearby. Pharaoh must be awake, he assumed.

That assumption was proven wrong when he entered the kitchen and found Jaden Yuki raiding the fridge at three in the morning.

”Jay?” Jesse croaked out. He squinted at Jaden’s silhouette, contrasted by the refrigerator light behind him. “Is that you?”

Jaden froze and turned to look at Jesse, a bag in his hands. Was that...Chazz’s leftover vegetable pizza? Jaden put on a smile, seeming unable to quite look Jesse in the eye, but still in the right direction. “Yo, Jesse! What’re you doing up this late, pal?” Jaden asked as he leaned over to turn on the kitchen light.

”I could ask you the same...thing, uh...” Jesse trailed off. Now that he could get a good look at Jaden, something seemed off. Maybe it was the way he was talking, or maybe something was different about the look in Jaden’s eyes. His entire presence was just off. None of it was by much, but combined it was enough that it couldn’t be explained just by Jaden being tired. “Something ain’t right,” Jesse mumbled.

”What’re you talking about?” Jaden frowned.

Well...there could be a different explanation. Jesse looked at Jaden again closely, eyes narrowed. “...Yubel?” 

A small smirk appeared on his conversation partner’s face, the ruse now thwarted. Still in Jaden’s physical form, of course, Yubel snorted with amusement. “I should’ve known it would be pointless to try that with you. You know him to well.”

”So, uh.” Jesse picked up a box and squinted at it. Yeah, that looked like the box with hot cocoa packets in it. “What’re you doing up so late?” he asked. He continued to stare at the box as he pulled out a packet.

”Stealing your food, obviously,” Yubel replied. She gestured at the open fridge. “I love Jaden, I do, but he has no idea how to eat healthy. All that junk food is going to backfire on him someday. He gets so focused sometimes that he forgets to eat, too. He’s asleep, but I’m still hungry.”

She managed to open the bag properly, but it was clear Yubel had no idea what to do after that. She just stared down at the pizza, as if expecting it to warm itself up.

”Here.” Jesse took the bag from her, still not quite looking at her. “This probably ain’t your best option, but it’s a start.” He carefully and deliberately put the veggie pizza on a plate and placed it in the microwave to heat up. “You can ask for help, you know. I’d be willing to make y’all, like, a salad or something. Jay certainly loves his fried shrimp, but fruit and vegetables? Not so much,” he added with a laugh.

Though...hmm. Jaden sometimes forgetting to eat? Not a good sign for anything, really. When they first met, Jaden would eat a lot, and often. He’d loved food, even Slifer Red-quality. That boy had changed so much in just a year. Jesse would have to keep an eye on him.

”I’ll think about it.” As Jesse returned to his original task at hand, it was clear Yubel was also making an effort to avoid eye contact. She stared at the microwave. “What about you, then? I asked you first, didn’t I?”

”I reckon you did, sorry about that.” Jesse frowned. This sort of thing wasn’t anything he was eager to open up to anyone about. Not that he didn’t think nothing was wrong there, but he didn’t want it to bother him anymore. Thinking about it would just make things worse. He was fine enough for now, wasn’t he? He shrugged. “Bad dream woke me up, I guess. I thought getting something to drink would help.”

He reached into the still open refrigerator for the milk. Put everything in, mix it all up, take a sip. Perfect temperature. He didn’t make a habit of drinking hot cocoa, but Jesse found it was good for nights like this. 

Yubel’s expression softened. The entire conversation, her face had been guarded, hard to read. But as Jesse actually glanced over at her now, she actually seemed...worried? Sympathetic? 

“You dream about Nightshroud’s visions, too,” she mumbled. Her voice was quiet; Jesse barely heard her.

”Did you...read my mind?” Jesse asked. He hadn’t said anything to imply that, had he? He didn’t think she knew. His tired brain wasn’t keeping up very well.

”It's not easy for me to control, at least since I fused with Jaden. I didn't mean to.” The microwave dinged, finished. Yubel went to grab the plate, then pulled her hand back with a hiss. Too hot, then. “I used to read minds constantly. I never had a reason not to. But...now I do have reasons to hold off. Jaden, too. We’re still getting used to all of this, of course, but together we’re good at turning off some of my abilities. But on my own, I haven’t broken my old habits yet.” She sniffed. “If it’s any consolation, a lot of the others seem to have nightmares from that time, too.”

Jesse nodded. He’d had his suspicions. Nightshroud...it’d been hard on everyone, that had been pretty clear almost as soon as it ended. And at the very least, he knew Chazz had dreams from those times, too. They’d witnessed each other wake up from it more than once. And sometimes, Chazz and Jesse would get on each other’s cases about one thing or another up, and sometimes it was opening up to each other about things. But the dreams was a topic they mutually avoided. It was something neither of them wanted to discuss, not now, and they were both fine with that. If the visions all his friends and seen, and the things they had felt, were at least half as bad as what Jesse experienced back then, it wasn’t a shock that it might still be haunting them now. He certainly hadn’t gotten completely past it yet.

Yubel reached out for the plate again. Now it was sufficiently cool enough to hold. She nibbled on the pizza, and Jesse took a sip of his drink. For a minute, they fell into silence.

”I am out here to try to eat something healthy enough for once. I didn’t lie about that. But that’s not why I’m still awake,” Yubel finally mumbled.

Jesse tilted his head, not wanting to interrupt.

”When Jaden dueled Nightshroud, I was there. Obviously, I was. We’re always together.” She peeled one of the black olives off her slice of pizza as she spoke. For the first time in the whole conversation, she was looking at him directly. He held eye contact with her as well. “But during that duel, we were separated. I had to convince him to remove me from play, and I couldn’t be there for him after that. And once we apart, I fell into that darkness, too.”

Jesse blinked. He’d gotten far from all the facts from that duel. It wasn’t a duel Jaden cared to recount in much detail, which Jesse’d understood; that’d been a hard time for Jaden, in general. Jesse knew enough that his own graveyard had helped Jaden out against Nightshroud, and he was glad for that. But Yubel’s part in it sounded like it was a major factor in the duel. If not in terms of Jaden’s odds of winning, certainly it must’ve had a personal impact. But Jaden hadn’t brought it up before. Yubel didn’t seem all that eager to talk about it either.

He still didn’t blame either of them for that. He was mostly just surprised, maybe more that Yubel was bringing it up at all more than anything.

”Together, we both benefit from Jaden’s powers of darkness. But alone I’m cut off.” Yubel’s grip on her pizza tightened. “You know the things that I’ve done. You remember what I did to you and your friends while you were at Duel Academy. When Jaden was young, I lashed out against his friends then, too.”

Her words were tumbling out of her mouth faster. She gritted her teeth together. Jesse reached a hand out towards her, but she flinched away. His hand fell back to the mug in his hands.

”I just wanted to help him. But I’ve only ever hurt him. Even in that duel, I could only help by leaving him alone. What good does it do him to have me here now?” she spat out, the volume of her voice even now refusing to rise.

Jesse smiled at her. “Jaden wouldn’t have been been able to defeat Nightshroud without you. Without either of us,” he declared.

Yubel froze with a frown. She didn’t take her eyes off of him.

”You’ve made mistakes in the past. We all have. But most of it ain’t your fault,” he assured her. “You weren’t yourself for most of it, you were hurting, and you meant well. But you’re better now, I know you are. Even if I couldn’t tell, Jaden can, and if he trusts you so do I. Just being here helps him.”

”You still don’t trust me completely, Jesse Anderson,” Yubel accused.

Jesse winced. Well, she could certainly still read his mind, couldn’t she? “Not because of you,” he responded. “It was...a bad situation. I’m...I’m having a hard time dealing with that, too.” She was reading his mind; she knew as well as he did he was referring to her temporary possession of his body. “I don’t think you’re bad, or that you’ll do it again. I just...time heals all wounds, ya know? I just need time.”

Neither of them spoke nor moved. Everything was still. Jesse could even make out Chazz’s snoring rooms away now. Eventually, Yubel let out a sigh.

”Maybe...that’s what I need, too. Time to move on.”

Jesse nodded. “It won’t get better overnight. I doubt I’ve said anything you didn’t know. And if I know Jaden, he’s probably said all this, too. He’s had a rough time with what happened back at school, and he’s still...trying to sort it out. It’s okay not to be okay. But someday it should get better.”

She shrugged. Most of her pizza was gone by now.

”Things ain’t perfect between us, I know. But if you ever need anything from me, let me know,” Jesse went on. “You’re my friend too, you know.” 

Yubel hesitated, then nodded. "The same goes for you."

Jesse smiled. Maybe he'd been able to help, maybe he hadn't. All the same, he was glad he was there. Maybe someday they could all move past the past, and they'd all be better off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> almost named this one "terror incarnate", then i remembered yubel has other forms, this one fit better, and, well, maybe terror incarnate will fit something else, you know?
> 
> i know we're back to just gx on this one, but next up we'll be back to gx and 5ds and we'll be switching gears. i'm really glad people seem to be enjoying this, and i aim to please so i hope this continues to be something you can enjoy!


	6. D - Acceleration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aster gets the chance to duel a newcomer to the pro leagues, and finds himself in a duel more exciting than he could have hoped for.

Aster Phoenix approached the arena, absentmindedly shuffling his deck as he walked. He was about to start a pro duel, and his opponent... he didn't know much about his opponent. The other duelist in today's match was newer on the scene, only had a few duels under his belt professionally. Still, this new duelist had an impressive record already. He hadn't lost yet. Meanwhile, Aster had suffered a couple of losses recently. He was still holding tightly onto his career, of course, he wasn't doing that badly, but he was doing badly enough to take on a duel as unpredictable as this one. Aster knew next to nothing about his opponent's strategies. He had no idea how to prepare, no idea what he'd need to counter. In that way, his opponent held a huge advantage over him in this duel.

Still, that wasn't important now. This duel was happening no matter what. All Aster could do now was duel his best and believe in his cards.

As the announcer introduced him, Aster entered the duel arena. He shoved his deck into the deck slot of his duel disk; the duel disk automatically went through the actual shuffling of his deck before the duel started. With a smirk, Aster tuned out of his own thoughts and waited for his opponent. It didn't matter what his opponent would throw at him. His Destiny Heroes would come through.

"Facing Aster today is a duelist newer on the scene," the announcer shouted. "And with him, he's brought a whole slew of new dueling strategies and techniques! Introducing Jack Atlas!" 

There he was, the other duelist in today's duel, stepping out into the arena. Jack Atlas' duel disk looked a bit older than Aster's, but Aster was well aware that a duel disk's age had no bearing on the duelist's skill. He was ready for a challenging duel.

"Aster Phoenix," Jack called out. "I've watched your duels before. I know you're good. But don't go thinking I'll just roll over for you. Jack Atlas is no pushover."

Aster smirked. "Wouldn't dream of it. From what I hear, you're a tough opponent. I'm looking forward to a good duel."

* * *

"Jack Atlas is dueling again?" Leo grinned, glancing over at the television screen. "He hasn't lost yet. I can't wait to see who wins!"

"You and me both." Chazz stretched his arms from where he was sitting on the couch. 

Chazz was watching the twins today; Jesse was busy all day between preparations for an upcoming duel and other work. Chazz was over at the apartment Leo and Luna lived at. The three of them were sharing a couch in the apartment's living room. Luna was sitting on one end, working on math homework. Leo was lounging on the other, a portable gaming device in his hands. He was playing a game of Tetris (and doing poorly). Chazz was sitting between the two of them. The living room's television was on, showing the duel currently going on between Aster Phoenix and Jack Atlas.

"Hey, Luna." Chazz looked over at her. She was still working steadily, but when he spoke she paused. "Are you okay with having this on? If it bothers you, we can turn it off, or at least make it quieter."

Luna shook her head with a smile. "It's fine," she told him. "I can work with the noise. Besides, this isn't due for another week. I'm not worried about it."

"If you say so." Chazz shrugged and turned his attention back to the duel.

Jack Atlas. He'd heard a little about this duelist. He was a newcomer to the pro leagues, but was gaining attention in some circles from his high win rate. Even more interesting to Chazz, however, were his strategies. Apparently, Jack was a duelist that used Synchro Monsters. Synchro Monsters were still a fairly new concept in dueling, but Chazz had gotten a whiff of the technique in one of his own pro matches not too long ago. At first, the concept had seemed unfair to him, unbalancing the game. It had looked like fusing, but without the need for Polymerization. But it had turned out to be more complicated than that. Monsters' levels were important to the process, monsters called Tuners were involved, and it looked like all the materials had to be on the field, whereas Polymerization required no such thing. Chazz was sure there was more to it than that, and maybe the facts he did know were a little off, but it didn't look as bad as he'd first thought. That opponent hadn't stood a chance to the Chazz, anyway, so Synchro Monsters couldn't be too overpowered. 

The other duelist was Aster Phoenix.

Aster...always gave him mixed feelings.

When Aster Phoenix decided to get involved in Duel Academy during the second year of school, it was for the worst. Chazz had spent a good part of that year brainwashed into being a member of the Society of Light, and helping to brainwash other students as well. And when Aster came to Duel Academy, the Society came with him. The thing was, though, that hadn't been Aster's fault. Aster had only been vaguely associated at best, and in the end had tried his hardest to take that dumb cult down. And help his friend or whatever. Then, during his last year at Duel Academy, Chazz had had the opportunity to work closely with Aster so he could learn about how pro dueling worked. Chazz had then been manipulated (wow, a recurring theme!) into squandering that opportunity and hurting Aster hard multiple times because of it. He'd done his best to make up for it, but part of him still felt really bad for the whole incident. Aster had nearly lost his job, after all. And the more Aster won, the better off he'd be. Somehow, despite everything, they still managed to maintain some kind of friendship, too. So Chazz truly did want Aster to win.

Still, another part of Chazz still wouldn't mind seeing someone beat Aster's dumb face in a duel once in awhile. Just because they were friends now didn't mean that Chazz couldn't acknowledge that Aster could be a bit of a jerk sometimes.

Aster Phoenix had been a pro for awhile now, and he was good. But Jack Atlas was doing well, and had a style of dueling that Aster wasn' t used to. It would be interesting to see who won this match.

* * *

"Synchro  _what_?" Aster asked, mouth hanging open.

"Now rise, Red Dragon Archfiend!" Jack continued his summon without paying any attention to Aster. Red Dragon Archfiend appeared on the field in front of him.

Aster was silent as Jack continued his turn. Red Dragon Archfiend's effect destroyed both of Aster's defense position monsters, but Aster gave no reaction. There was nothing to do -- without a counter set up, he had to let it happen. Instead, he took a brief moment to go over the process of what had just happened again. The process of Synchro Summoning. Going over it step by step, he felt like he had the basics of it figured out. Though, given the smarts and education he possessed, Aster would be more surprised if he  _couldn't_.

Synchro Summoning, huh. It certainly was something. It didn't feel like anything Aster would be interested in using himself, but there was something really cool about it. Turning low-level monsters into higher leveled ones. The special summoning Jack had used to get all the materials on his field at once. It really showed how there weren't any useless cards in Duel Monsters at all. He figured Chazz could probably appreciate it, once he figured it out. Chazz was probably too attached to his Ojamas and his dragons to try it out, though.

"I have to say, I'm impressed," Aster commented, staring up at the Synchro Monster in front of him. "I've never encountered anything like this before. You're definitely not here by any fluke, Jack Atlas. You've really got the skills to back up your record."

"Oh, you'll be more than impressed when Red Dragon Archfiend is done with you," Jack promised with a snort. "Your life points will be gone so fast, you won't even know what hit you."

"We'll see about that. Right now, it's my turn." Aster smiled as he drew. There it is, his Heroes would never let him down in a situation like this. "I summon Destiny Hero - Doom Lord in attack position!"

Doom Lord looked awfully small compared to the giant dragon just across from it. Then again, looks could be deceiving. Underestimating Doom Lord would be a huge mistake.

"What's that weak little thing going to be able to do against my dragon?" Jack scoffed. "Don't tell me your giving up already."

"Far from it," Aster assured him. "I'm activating Doom Lord's effect. Once a turn, I can banish one of your monsters until my second Standby Phase after this turn. And I think I'll have Doom Lord remove your Red Dragon Archfiend from play!"

"What?!"

Aster grinned, watching the look on Jack's face as Red Dragon Archfiend disappeared from the field. He was sure that same look had been on his own face just a couple of minutes ago. Still, Aster had been able to keep going after experiencing that feeling, and he was sure Jack would be able to as well.

It had been awhile since he'd been this excited during a duel. He couldn't wait to see how it ended.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit short, but I wanted to introduce Aster and Jack to the scene! Hope ya'll enjoyed!


	7. Oops!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Easter Special

> **Duel Academy's Class of 2008**
> 
> **Aster:** hey hey
> 
> **Atticus** : hey hey
> 
> **Jim:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** what are you guys doing
> 
> **Chazz:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** seriously you've been doing this for like, two hours
> 
> **Atticus:** hey hey
> 
> **Alexis:** hey hey
> 
> **Jesse:** hey hey
> 
> **Aster:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** guys i'm begging you
> 
> **Chumley:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** chumley, please, i'll buy you like ten grilled cheese sandwiches if you tell me what's going on
> 
> **Chumley:** uh
> 
> **Alexis:** Stay strong, Chumley
> 
> **Jim:** i know we've barely talked mate but i'll buy you ten grilled cheese sandwiches if you don't
> 
> **Chumley:** hey hey
> 
> **Axel:** hey hey
> 
> **Chazz:** hey hey
> 
> **Atticus:** hey hey
> 
> **Zane:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** Zane. Please.
> 
> **Zane:** hey
> 
> **Zane:** hey
> 
> **Bastion:** hey hey
> 
> **Jesse:** hey hey
> 
> **Bastion:** hey hey
> 
> **Alexis:** hey hey
> 
> **Dr. Crowler:** Alexis, aren't you supposed to be at a meeting in five minutes? What are you doing here?
> 
> **Jim:** hey hey
> 
> **Aster:** hey hey
> 
> **Zane:** hey hey
> 
> **Bastion:** hey hey
> 
> **Jim:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** finally, someone else is as confused as i am
> 
> **Alexis:** _hey hey_
> 
> **Aster:** HEY HEY
> 
> **Jesse:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** i'm so confused
> 
> **Chumley:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** dr crowler you don't know what this is either right
> 
> **Jim:** hey hey
> 
> **Dr. Crowler:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** oh no
> 
> **Jaden:** hey hey
> 
> **Alexis:** hey hey
> 
> **Atticus:** hey hey
> 
> **Syrus:** i'm blocking this chat i hate all of you
> 
> **Bastion:** hey hey
> 
> **Chumley:** hey hey
> 
> **Aster:** hey hey
> 
> **Zane:** hey hey
> 
> **Dr. Crowler:** hey hey
> 
> **Jim:** hey hey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Hey!
> 
> So, uh, April Fools! If you're not reading this on April 1st, or even if you are I guess, here's the April Fools chapter, the April Fools special! This is going to stay up, it's not going to be only up for the day or anything like that, so sorry if you got pranked on the wrong day? But, uh, the group chat finally made its return!
> 
> This is an incredibly like, convoluted inside joke type thing that I'm not entirely prepared to explain at the moment, but I think it's great enough without context that it stands alone well enough.


	8. Cards for Black Feathers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new customer arrives at the game shop...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I certainly wasn't planning my next fic update to be, uh, yugioh again, but I didn't have any internet last night, I needed internet to check like eighty things for the next thing I was planning on updating, so I kinda hammered this out real quick instead. Return from the Different Dimension...returns!  
> A couple of quick things, first off you'll notice this is part of a series now! I've decided to go ahead with my possible plans of crossing this universe over with most (if not all, i'm still undecided) yugioh series. However, this particular fic will remain the same as it has been, a gx/5ds crossover focusing mostly on roommate shenanigans and the twins. This story should hopefully stay readable and fine if you aren't interested in the other parts of the series, but I do want to explore other aspects of this universe as well. If you _are_ interested in other parts of the series, there is now another story in the series, a dm/gx one-shot that takes place before this chapter. In the event that this particular chapter might leave you with some minor, burning questions, Unity! should hopefully answer them, but hopefully this chapter stands alone without Unity! as well. Unity! is there if you're interested, and if not, that's okay, too.  
>  Also, since the last chapter of this story, I also explored an alternate universe of this universe (yeah, I know...). In this story I've been staying pretty far away from in-canon events (such as the Fortune Cup or the Divine Temple) since I'm not sure if I want to incorporate the actual plot events of 5DS here, or how far I want to go with it. However, Dark Calling is an alternate universe that dives headfirst into the 5DS plot, incorporating Jaden and Jesse and Chazz along with their relationship with Leo and Luna directly into the plot of 5DS. So, if you liked the Dark Signer arc, if you like the GX characters, Dark Calling might be calling for you! Again, if you aren't into it, that's fine, I just figured that since it's technically an alternate universe of this universe, it's worth mentioning here. Because of Dark Calling's status as an alternate universe of this universe, it has not been included as part of this series.  
> Sorry for all the talking, sorry for all the bad puns, enjoy!

Jesse wiggled the pen back and forth in his dominant hand. His other hand firmly held a clipboard, with a small pile of papers clipped to it. His eyes scanned down the top page. Finally finding what he was looking for, his hand stopped moving and he made his way over to the corresponding pile of games.

It was time to do inventory at the game shop. Jesse was picking up where his co-worker left off, about halfway through the list.

For about fifteen uninterrupted minutes, Jesse counted games swiftly but accurately, scribbling down numbers as fast as he could. No one else was in the shop; if he worked hard and fast enough, he could finish taking inventory, or at least come close. This would leave less work for everyone else later on, and they needed it. His co-worker, who started taking inventory, was still in high school and still really busy with class work, while his boss was only getting older and could use as much of a break as he could get.

He had a good flow going, and made some good progress in those fifteen minutes. Then, someone walked into the store. This put an immediate pause on inventory; customers always took priority. Jesse sat down the clipboard and turned to the door with a smile.

"Howdy!" he called out. "Can I help you with anything today?" Even if the answer was 'no', Jesse didn't care. Window shoppers were welcome, too. The store could get all the business it could, even if that business was just having people physically inside the store.

"Hey there!" the customer greeted him, returning the smile. Jesse's own smile melted into something a little more genuine. He had the feeling that this transaction would go smoothly. "This is the game shop, right? Do you sell any duel monsters cards here?"

"We sure do!" Jesse slid back behind the cashier area. Among other things, this job _did_ require him to be a cashier, unfortunately. Math was definitely not his favorite subject. "Do you have any specific cards in mind? We also have structure decks and booster packs, if you want those."

"Nope, nothing specific in mind..." the customer scratched at his cheek.

Jesse took the moment to actually get a good look at this customer. His most immediately obvious feature was definitely the golden face tattoos; if Jesse remembered correctly, these types of tattoos were pretty common in the part of Domino known as the Satellite. He wasn't really sure what was up with that, honestly, but it's not like he was about to ask now. The customer also had orange hair held back by a headband, and he seemed to be dressed for slightly warmer weather than Domino was getting at the moment. He was an interesting person to look at, for sure. Not in a bad way, though, Jesse didn't want to judge by appearances or anything.

As Jesse sized him up, the customer briefly compared the prices between the options. Eventually, he flashed Jesse another smile. "I think I'll go with some booster packs. I think three will be enough. They all cost the same, right? I don't care which ones I get, you can surprise me I guess."

"Alright, booster packs it is." Jesse bent down behind the cashier counter. All the booster packs were kept down below, employee access only. They had quite a few different options down here. Thank goodness the inventory for these were all done, because Jesse was not interested in bending down again to count all of these. Surprise him, huh? "If you're looking for duel monsters cards, that must mean you're a duelist, right?" he asked.

He masked it as idle chitchat, small talk, good customer service, whatever you want to call it, but... Jesse had a good idea by now about most of the duel spirits in these booster packs, which ones were in which packs and what they were like. Whenever he was working, Jesse tried his best to make sure customers were matched with the most compatible duel spirits possible, if not a duel spirit to be their partner. It made customers happy and helped bring in repeat customers and all, but it made the spirits happy, too, and Jesse just wanted both the people and the duel spirits to be happy, to help create the strongest bonds between duelist and cards possible. Especially for people that could see duel spirits, they needed all the help they could get in this world. Getting to know the customers, even just a little, helped Jesse immensely with this task. Killed two birds with one stone that way. Good customer service and good duelist-card relationships.

"Yeah, I guess you could say I'm a duelist," the customer answered. Jesse was bent way too far down to see his face at this point. "The cards aren't for me, though. I, uh, I help out at the orphanage I grew up at. These cards are for the kids there. They're good kids, and we can't always get them much besides food and clothes, but I saved up a little extra this week. Figured it'd be a good surprise for them."

Kids at the orphanage. Jesse smiled softly. "I see." That would definitely change which packs he picked, though it wasn't like it'd take him much longer anyway. Like he said, he had a pretty good idea about what the duel spirits in these packs were like by now. His hand immediately gravitated towards a couple of packs with spirits that would love kids, no matter their circumstances. "That's great. I always wanted to help kids like that." Well, more specifically, he'd always wanted to help kids that could see duel spirits, but he didn't need to bare his life story to a stranger. In order to help kids like that, Jesse had to find them, first, and while he always kept an eye out in this job and he had Luna, too, he probably ought to put himself out there more often if he wanted to work towards that goal.

"Well, the orphanage could always use more volunteers," the customer told him. "I mean, Martha's great, and I'd help out more if I wasn't working part-time, but the more people the better, you know? If you ever wanna help out, I can give you the address. We wouldn't need anything big from you, just being there would be incredible."

Jesse selected the three booster packs and placed them up by the cash register. He paused at that, tilting his head. "...You know what, yeah. Maybe not right away, I'm gonna be pretty busy for the next couple of weeks, but I'd love to come down sometime."

While Jesse run up the booster packs, the customer used the inventory pen to write down the address on an old receipt someone must've left in the shop awhile back. He handed Jesse the pen and the address along with the money for the packs. Jesse put the money in the register and slid the packs across the counter with the change.

"If you do decide to come down, if I'm not there, let 'em know Crow sent ya," the customer said, grinning. He placed the packs and change in one of his pockets, but stopped before he turned to leave. "You know...you look kind of familiar."

"Do I?" Jesse frowned, he was pretty sure he never met this customer, Crow. "Name's Jesse Anderson, you can just call me Jesse. Not sure if that helps you any."

"...Oh, yeah, now I remember. You're one of those pro duelists, right? I share an apartment, one of my roommates joined the pro scene not too long ago, and someday I'm hoping I might end up there myself. I don't think Jack's duelled you, but he's definitely watched at least one of your duels. You were on the TV," Crow recalled.

"Yup, that's me!" Jesse chuckled nervously. Most customers at the shop didn't recognize him as a pro duelist yet, and he still wasn't used to it. It wasn't a bad thing, it just still felt weird. "Well, maybe we'll end up dueling someday."

"Maybe." Crow nodded and began to leave the store. "Well, Jesse, I'll catch you later!"

"See you later, Crow!" Jesse called back.

Well, time to go back to inventory.

Before he went back to counting piles, though, Jesse glanced back down at the booster packs. After doing some quick math and quickly going over the duel spirits once more, he grabbed two more booster packs and charged them for himself.

A surprise for the kids...


	9. Magical Mallet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chazz and Jesse help Leo and Luna on an assignment for school. (Warning: most of this chapter is a duel. Once the duel starts, if you'd rather not read the whole thing, you can skip to the bottom of the chapter. The chapter ends soon after the duel does.)

"And that's the history assignment done," Chazz announced as he slammed the textbook in his lap closed. Jesse perked up in his chair, halfway across the room from Chazz, at the noise. It's not that he didn't want to help, or he wasn't any good at the subject. The Princeton family had expected a lot from Chazz in the academics when he was growing up, and, well, Chazz certainly knew his history a lot better than Jesse did. Maybe Jesse could help more in the next subject, though. Or, if they were all done, maybe they could do something fun.

"Now that that's done, all that's left is..." Luna trailed off. She picked up her agenda, which listed everything they were supposed to be doing. Quickly, she scanned every item written down until she got to the last one.

"All that's left is the dueling assignment!" Leo exclaimed, finishing for her. Next to him, Luna sighed. "Alright, I've been waiting for this one all day!"

"Dueling assignment?" Jesse frowned. "I'd expect something like that from Duel Academy, or North Academy, not..."

"No, we get assignments for duels once in awhile, too," Luna explained. She offered him a half-hearted smile. "Probably not as many as you guys did, though."

It was a pretty low-energy day for the four of them. Jesse was watching the twins once again, at their home instead of his, and since Chazz had nothing to do, he figured he'd tag along, too. Leo and Luna had schoolwork like every other kid their age, but due to Luna's health, all their classes were completely online. This made their homework all completely digital; they turned their homework into pdfs or whatever other file format might be required of them, and uploaded it to a website where it could be graded. Even their tests were taken online. These classes gave them essentially what was the equivalent of the education they'd get from a public school system. It certainly wasn't a dueling-based education, since they were too young to attend something like Duel Academy. Yet, given how big a role dueling played in society these days, especially with the ongoing projects to convert duel energy into other forms of energy, duels still found their way into the curriculum once in awhile.

"So, what's the assignment?" Chazz went on. He set the textbook aside; clearly history wasn't going to help much with duels. Under his breath, Jesse barely heard him mumble, "Better not be anything like North Academy."

"'Successfully activate and resolve three monster effects in one duel'," Luna read aloud from her agenda. 

"Piece of cake!" Leo grinned at Chazz. "My Morphtronics have all kinds of effects they can use! I can finish this up in three turns, no wait, two! Wait, no, I can do it in one!"

"The monsters in my deck have a lot of monsters, too," Luna added as she carefully closed her agenda. "This isn't going to be very hard at all. It's a little boring, honestly."

"A  _little_?" Chazz snorted. "My Ojamas could do that one without breaking a sweat, and most of those dweebs don't even  _have_ card effects."

"Hold on." Jesse clapped his hands together, still curled up in his chair. All eyes were drawn to him. "I think I thought of a way to make this more interesting. What if you two swapped decks?"

"That would definitely make it more challenging." Luna pulled her deck out of her pocket and stared down at it. "We don't know each others' cards nearly as well as we do our own."

"But why would we want to do that?" Leo asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I like my Morphtronics. I don't want to use anything else."

"In the dueling world, you might not always get to use the same deck," Chazz pointed out. "And I'm not just saying that because I switch between a few different decks. I've only ever seen Jesse use one deck, and as much as the Slifer Slacker likes to switch up his deck, he's way too lazy to make any others. But I've been put in situations before where I've had to make entire new decks from scratch because of some rule or restriction or whatever. And I've done it more than once. Sometimes you just don't have a choice."

"Or maybe you'll find yourself with a new deck that you've never used before, but you like a lot more than your old one," Jesse added. Finally, he stood up from where he was sitting, and stretched his arms up in the air. "You don't think I always had the Crystal Beasts, do you? But it's always good practice to learn new cards. If you always duel with the same old cards, how are you supposed to improve?"

"I guess that makes sense...I'll do it, but that doesn't mean I'll like it." Leo puffed out his cheeks, but took his own deck out of his pocket anyway. With a sigh, he let himself switch decks with Luna.

"It's just for one duel. I'll take good care of your cards, and you'll get them back, soon," Luna promised.

With that, it was time to set up for the duel. The twins needed a video recording of the duel for their assignment, so Jesse agreed to take a video recording with his phone. However, he rarely ever took videos with his phone, and found himself unable to remember how it worked. Grumbling under his breath, Chazz ended up leaning over Jesse's shoulder and helping him out. ("There, now the video's recording--wait, no, what are you doing the camera's pointing the wrong way-- don't turn your phone around push the button to switch cameras!") Leo and Luna stood across from each other in the living room, placed their swapped decks in their duel disks, and got ready to start the duel.

"Okay, we're all set, you can start now, no thanks to  _some_ people..." Chazz didn't move from his position against Jesse, but held a thumbs-up to the twins. Beside him, Jesse rolled his eyes.

"Cool, then I'll start!" Leo looked down at his starting hand. Both the twins were starting out at the standard 4,000 life points. As Leo glanced over his starting hand, he couldn't help but notice... "This starting hand stinks. Wait, why do you have Tuner Monsters in your deck? You don't have any Synchros!"

"I will someday!" Luna placed her hands on her hips and glared back at Leo. "Besides, it's not like I duel often enough that it matters. Not every hand is perfect, bro, chill out."

"It'll be fine. Keep going!" Jesse encouraged Leo from behind the camera.

"Fine." Leo gritted his teeth and looked at his cards again. He'd just have to make do with what he had for now. "I activate the Field Spell: Ancient Forest! Whenever a monster attacks, it's destroyed at the end of the Battle Phase. Then, I play the Continuous Spell: Banner of Courage. During my Battle Phase, all my monsters gain 200 attack. Then, I set one monster face down, and place two other cards face down. That's my turn." It wasn't much, and using all the cards in his hand probably wasn't his best move, but it was all Leo could really do to set up some defense. Otherwise, he wouldn't last long enough to use three monster effects.

"My turn, then." Luna drew a card and studied the cards in her hand. Usually she liked to keep her own monsters safe and build up her defense before she went on the offense. Her current hand, however, was more geared towards offense. The problem with that, however, was Ancient Forest; attacking with a monster would just leave her open to an attack. She needed to get rid of that card. "From my hand, I summon Morphtronic Videon!" Videon appeared on the field in attack position. It wasn't a very strong monster on its own, but Luna could fix that. "I equip Videon with Morphtronic Cord. Now Videon's effect activates! Since it's in attack mode, it gains 800 attacks for every card equipped to it. My turn's over."

"You're not gonna attack?" Leo raised his eyebrows. "You've got a super strong monster in attack mode."

"I think I'll wait to do that," Luna told him.

"Alright, well, it's my turn!" Leo annnounced. Before he drew, he frowned at Morphtronic Videon. He knew his cards, so he knew what the Morphtronic Cord equipped to it could do: if Videon switched modes, Luna could destroy a spell or a trap. He wasn't eager to lose any of the ones he had-- he needed to get rid of that Equip Spell. This could work out. "I summon Armored White Bear! Armored White Bear, attack Morphtronic Videon!"

"No!" Luna gasped. She didn't have to question what Leo was up to, the strategy was obvious. Both Videon and his Bear had 1800 attack points. They'd both be destroyed in battle, which would destroy Morphtronic Cord, too, and ruin her strategy. But there was nothing she could do to stop it. All she could do was watch as the three cards were sent to the graveyard.

"Armored White Bear's effect activates. When it's destroyed, I can summon a Level 4 or lower Light Beast-type monster from my deck. Come on out Sunlight Unicorn!" Leo went on. Luna bit her lip as one of her friends appeared on her opponent's field. It would be okay. She could still do this. It was just Leo, after all, not someone trying to steal her friends permanently. "I'd rather not empty out my field, so I'll end it there."

Luna drew her next card and frowned. This wouldn't help her out either. The best thing to do now would be... "I activate Magical Mallet! By shuffling all four cards in my hand back into my deck, I get to draw four new cards." Most of her new hand consisted of Spells and Traps, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. "I summon Morphtronic Magnen Bar in attack mode. Then, I place two cards face down. That's it for now."

"Magnen Bar in attack mode? Are you sure?" Leo asked. "You can't even use its effect when it's the only monster you control."

"I know what I'm doing," Luna responded.

"In that case, my turn!" Leo grinned at his next card. "Sweet! I equip Horn of the Unicorn to Sunlight Unicorn, so that its attack and defense go up by 700!"

Luna tilted her head to the side. Sunlight Unicorn had an effect, and Leo had yet to use it, even though he'd had ample opportunity to by now. Was he going to? Or had he just not noticed the effect? The whole goal here was to use monster effects, after all. Should she tell him? He might not appreciate her trying to help him out in a duel when there was video evidence, even if it was just for an assignment...

"Hey, you. Leo." Before Leo could continue, he was interrupted by Chazz. Leo glanced over at him. "Look at your cards again."

"Huh?" Leo went through all the cards on his field one-by-one, until he got to Sunlight Unicorn. "Oh, wait, I activate Sunlight Unicorn's effect! I get to look at the card on top of my deck. I can add it to my hand if it's an Equip Spell, but anything else goes to the bottom of my deck. Here goes!" He drew another card and groaned. "Aw, man, that's lame. Fairy Archer goes to the bottom of the deck. But I'm still gonna flip summon Sunny Pixie. Now we'll battle. Sunny Pixie, attack Magnen Bar!"

"Not so fast. I activate Morphtransition!" Luna announced. "Your attack is negated, and Morphtronic Magnen Bar switches to defense mode."

"Well, I don't wanna destroy Sunlight Unicorn, so...I'll end my turn," Leo decided.

"Okay, I'm up." Luna drew another card. No, no, no... She couldn't activate this spell, she didn't have a Morphtronic in her hand. Just this new spell and the trap she'd been holding onto... On her field was Magnen Bar in defense mode, and her face down: Twister. Twister would let her get rid of Ancient Forest, but right now the Field Spell was helping more than restricting her, since it kept Sunlight Unicorn from attacking. She couldn't attack right now anyway, it was better to wait until she had a better chance. "Due to Magnen Bar's effect, none of my monsters can attack. I place one card face down and end my turn." She couldn't use this trap right now at all. But maybe it would psych Leo out.

 "My turn!" Leo sighed as he looked at his next card. Swords of Revealing Light wasn't going to help when Luna seemed to be completely refusing to attack him. But maybe... "I activate Sunlight Unicorn's effect once more!" The next card on his deck turned out to be-- "That's another card going to the bottom of the deck... But that's fine! Alright, Sunny Pixie, let's try again! Destroy Magnen Bar!" Despite Luna's face down cards, the attack went through this time, and Magnen Bar went to the graveyard. "Alright! Due to Ancient Forest's effect, Sunny Pixie is destroyed. But that's fine, it's not like I could really tune it with anything anyway. My turn's over."

"They're just...going back and forth at each other without doing any real damage," Chazz mumbled. "They both still have full life points. How long is this gonna take?"

"Hey, maybe this is a good thing," Jesse assured him. "The point's not for someone to win, you know. If it ends too soon, they might not be able to complete the assignment."

"Then I'll go." Luna's eyes lit up when she saw the monster she drew. What she needed to do was clear: to use Leo's deck effectively, she needed to think like Leo, and she knew what Leo would do with this hand. It was risky, she couldn't deny it, but... Maybe she had a chance. "I activate the spell Morphtronic Accelerator. I return Morphtronic Remoten to my deck. Now I get to destroy one card on the field, and I choose Sunlight Unicorn."

"Wait, what?" Luna sputtered, his voice cracking. "Fine, fine, uh... Horn of the Unicorn's effect activates! When it's sent to the graveyard, it goes to the top of my deck instead!"

"Sorry, Unicorn," Luna whispered as she watched her beloved Sunlight Unicorn disappear into the graveyard. "But this lets me draw one new card." She drew her next card, which was-- "Perfect. I play Scapegoat, which lets me summon four sheep tokens in defense mode! That's it for me."

Horn of the Unicorn went back to Leo's hand, and he immediately ended his turn.

"I activate the Quick-Play Spell Twister," Luna said after she drew her next card. "By paying 500 life points, I can destroy Ancient Forest. Next I'll summon Morphtronic Datatron in attack mode, and I'll activate its effect. By sending one sheep token to the graveyard, you lose 600 life points." And with the threat of Ancient Forest gone... "Now I'll have Datatron attack you directly!"

"Hey, slow down!" Leo protested, still wincing from the effect damage. "I activate the Trap: Twinkle Wall. Datatron's attack is negated, and I take damage equal to half of its attack points."

When Luna ended her turn, she was down to 3,500 life points, while Leo was at 2,800.

Leo's next drawn card wasn't going to help him either. Pixie Ring needed two monsters on his side of the field, and he had zero. At least he still had Luna's other defensive strategies working for him. "I play Swords of Revealing Light! You can't attack for the next three turns. I end my turn."

"That's fine with me, I don't need to attack." Luna kept the Morphtronic Boomboxen she drew in her hand, playing it now wouldn't do her much good. "I activate Datatron's effect, and send another sheep token to the graveyard." That left her with two sheep tokens, and Leo with 2,200 life points.

"Hey, no fair, stop beating me with my own deck," Leo whined.

"Then you'll have to get your game on," Luna goofed. She stuck her tongue out at him. "Here's your chance: My turn's over."

Leo studied his next card. If he played this right... "I summon Hourglass of Courage! Its attack and defense are cut in half when I summon it. Hourglass, get rid of one of her sheep tokens."

"This isn't good," Luna mumbled as she went down to her last token. The tokens weren't what were concerning her, though it might limit her use of Datatron's effect. After Leo's next turn, Hourglass of Courage's attack and defense would be  _doubled_ from its original stats, and with Swords of Revealing Light in play, Luna probably couldn't destroy it before then. That would put the Hourglass at 2,200 attack, and her Datatron only had 1,200 attack. If she couldn't protect Datatron or herself, she was looking at taking some pretty major damage before this.

She was at 3,500 life points. Leo was at 2,200. She had two more turns to go through with Swords of Revealing Light-- one of those was about to begin. They each had one face down, and Luna suspected Leo's was more useful in the current situation than hers was. He also had Banner of Courage still in play. Leo's only monster was Hourglass of Courage, and she had Morphtronic Datatron and one sheep token. This next draw was crucial.

And...it was a dud. She set Morphtronic Impact Return face down, used Datatron's ability to destroy her last sheep token and put Leo at 1,600 life points, and ended her turn.

Leo found his next draw to also be a dud. He set a monster face down and ended his turn. But now, the other shoe finally dropped, and Hourglass of Courage's attack rose to 2,200.

Luna's next card was another Morphtronic Datatron. She summoned it, used her first Datatron's effect to immediately tribute it and bring Leo down to 1,000 life points. Then she put that Datatron in defense mode and ended her turn. Swords of Revealing Light's effect ended, but that wasn't much help to her now.

Leo grinned as he drew his next card. "Things are finally looking my way! First, I Flip Summon Dreamsprite on my field. Next, I summon Spirit of the Breeze. This duel's as good as finished! During my Battle Phase, Banner of Courage raises each of my monsters' attack by--"

"I play trap Morphtronic Impact Return," Luna interrupted him. "I send Morphtronic Boomboxen in my hand back to my deck, and your Banner of Courage and your other face down go back to your hand." 

"Fine, fine, we can drag this out a little longer." Leo pouted as they both made the necessary moves. "Hourglass of Courage attacks your Morphtronic Datatron, then Dreamsprite attacks you directly!"

Since Datatron was in defense mode, Luna didn't receive battle damage from the Hourglass, but Dreamsprite still made a hit. She was at 3200 life points.

"Now I'll play Banner of Courage, and while I'm at it, I'll equip Horn of the Unicorn to Hourglass of Courage!" Leo announced. "I place two cards facedown and end my turn." But he wasn't finished yet, because as soon as Luna drew her next card, he had another card to play. "I activate the Continuous Trap: Pixie Ring. You can't attack Spirit of the Breeze while I control at least one other monster."

Luna looked again at her new card. "I don't need to. I summon Morphtronic Radion. Its effect activates; all Morphtronics on my side of the field gain 800 attack points. That puts Radion at 1,800 life points. And I can't attack Spirit of the Breeze, but I can attack Dreamsprite."

"Wait," Leo started.

"Time to battle!" Luna pointed forward. 

"Hold on," Leo continued.

"Morphtronic Radion, attack Dreamsprite and end this!" Luna pressed forward. The attack went through, and Leo lost his remaining 1,000 life points, making her the winner.

"Aww, come on, no fair. You always beat me when we duel," Leo mumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Hey, you still have plenty of time to improve," Luna pointed out. "I know you'll beat me someday, and get way better than I am."

"You might be improving already." Jesse picked up Leo's remaining face down: Draining Shield. "If you played this when your sister attacked, you wouldn't have lost. You might've even been able to turn it around and win."

"Wait, what?!" Leo snatched the card out of Jesse's hand. "Oh, come on, I panicked so much that I forgot I had this! I played this back on, like, the first turn and the duel went on way too long!"

"You've got good instincts," Chazz noted. "But you need to be able to stay calm under pressure. That'll come with experience and practice."

"Then we can't waste any time!" Leo insisted. He tugged at the end of the sleeve of Chazz's jacket. "Do you want to duel now, Chazz? Can we duel now?"

"The only thing I want right now is a nap," Chazz muttered.

"Jesse?" Leo spun around and gave him a hopeful stare, but Jesse was already shaking his head.

"Sorry, Leo. I'd like to, you know I would, but I lost my contacts," Jesse explained. "I can see my own cards, but I won't be able to tell what's on your field. I can barely tell there are holograms at all like this."

"Luna?" Leo turned back to his sister.

"Sorry, but..." Luna took a step back, wrapping her arms around herself. In the few moments that Leo had divided his attention away from her, she'd gotten a bit pale. "I think that's enough excitement for me right now. I'm exhausted."

"Right, I forgot. You need to rest." Leo lead her to a couch. They sat down next to each other, and Leo produced the TV remote from his pocket. ("How long's he had that?" Jesse asked himself.) "In that case, I can learn by watching duels on TV!"

"TV... The ultimate education experience," Luna mumbled. After that, she immediately fell into a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, uh... I was kinda itching to write a duel, specifically between Leo and Luna. The other weekend I was catching up on the Pokemon anime, and was inspired by an episode where a bunch of the major characters swap their partner Pokemon with each other for a day. That inevitably led to this. When it came to the duel, I knew what I kind of wanted the end result to be, but I didn't want to sift through each card and plan it out. That's just not my thing. So I ended up writing a program that took each of their decks, shuffled them for me, and listed the shuffled decks in order from first to last, as well as determining randomly who went first. That's laziness for you. Luna, as it turns out, has very few confirmed cards, and a good portion of those relate to Ancient Fairy Dragon, which is not a card she currently has in this story. Leo, meanwhile, has a tooooon of confirmed cards just in his "Ground" deck, for non-Turbo duels. So to even it up, I added a few cards to Luna's deck that kinda fit her more defensive strategy, and I added a few fairies as well (hello, Hourglass of Courage, which I think is the only one that showed up). You'll recognize quite a few of these from the "Popular Cards" list recently implemented in Duel Links; I've been using most of the ones I added for quite awhile there myself, and they're just really good defensive cards and I felt like they complemented her deck well. At the very least, I needed something more to work with, and that was my solution. Hope y'all don't mind.


	10. Bonding - H20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Jesse Isn't Home

“TELL ME WHERE THE FREAKS AT!” Jaden yelled into the whisk, grasped firmly in his hand.

To his side, Luna began playing an accompaniment on the trombone, playing out the first phrase perfectly and precisely. When the second phrase began, Leo began slamming the oven door open and closed behind them repeatedly to the beat. He continued as Luna repeated both phrases.

She faltered, however, as a still half-asleep Chazz appeared in front of them.

“Jaden,” Chazz said, his voice cracking. “Seriously?”

“Hey, I changed the lyrics to be kid-friendly,” Jaden insisted. He held his hands up in surrender, still holding the whisk in one of them.

They were taking care of the twins at home this time. Jaden, Leo, and Luna were gathered in the apartment’s small kitchen. The trombone in Luna’s hands was not her own; Jesse had taught her this accompaniment on the trombone weeks ago, and it was the only thing she knew how to play. Jesse was out dueling and Chazz was trying to sleep off a stomach bug while Pharaoh curled up against his legs in support of recovery (and Catnipped Kitty flopped onto the bed at his side), putting Jaden on the actual kid duty.

Sleeping off his sickness was supposed to be literal on Chazz’s part, and it had been before this all started. His hair was sticking in every direction and his eyes were barely open. He hadn’t even grabbed a bathrobe to cover his pajamas, black pajama pants and a shirt reading “Why fall in love when you can fall asleep?”. Usually Chazz hated being anything less than presentable, even right after waking up, but now he was anything but that.

“Okay, but two pairs of sunglasses? Really?” Chazz pointed out in a half-whisper.

Indeed, Jaden, Luna, and Leo were all wearing a pair of sunglasses over their eyes. Jaden was wearing a second pair, pushed back on top of his head

“Of course, it makes me twice as cool,” Jaden declared. He took off the second pair and held them out, offering them to Chazz.

“You mean twice as lame.” Chazz took the sunglases and shoved them onto Jaden’s face, over the first pair. “Can you just do it quieter? Some people are trying to sleep.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jaden muttered. “We’ll be boring and do homework or something. Make sure you drink a lot of water when you’re more awake. Feel better, alright?”

“That’s what I’m trying to do, dork.” Chazz just stared at Jaden for a second in silence, before turning around and walking back down the hall, going straight into the bathroom.

“Alright, guys, fun’s over.” Jaden took off his sunglasses. “We should probably actually do homework or whatever. I don’t want to be the adult here, but you should both do better in school than I did.”

With a sigh, Leo followed suit, along with Luna. The sunglasses were off, egg whisk put back in its drawer, trombone back in its case. Leo pulled out his science homework. Luna, who already finished her homework the day before, went to a game. Jesse’s file on Majora’s Mask to be precise; both the twins had permission to play on it as long as they stayed in town. She muted the volume before playing.

Leo sat down on the couch, a notebook in his lap and a pencil in his hand. Jaden peeked over the end of the couch.

“Isn’t all your class and homework stuff on the computer?” he asked.

“Yeah, but sometimes it’s easier to think without a giant glowing screen in your face,” Leo muttered. “I wrote down all the questions before.”

“I see.” Jaden stretched his arms and shot Leo a smile. “Well, good luck and have fun. Let me know if you need anything, alright? I’m going to see what we have for lunch.”

In the kitchen, Jaden squatted down in front of the fridge and looked around. A couple of things in takeout containers that likely belonged to Chazz, an unusually large amount of slices of cheese, some pickles, expired potato salad... He threw out the potato salad, after an internal mini debate. It didn’t look like there was much here, honestly. Maybe he should’ve planned ahead.

Then it caught Jaden’s eye.

A pizza kit.

That wasn’t hard to put together into what minimally qualified as an acceptable lunch. It wouldn’t take long. It counted as a meal. And now Jaden was really craving pizza. He had a winner on his hands. Literally, as he pulled out the kit and got to work. Put the dough in a pizza pan, spread out the sauce...

With the oven preheated and the pizza ready to cook, Jaden shoved in the pizza and set the timer. Almost done, now he just needed to wait.

Jaden glanced back into the living room. Luna had paused her game and was huddled on the couch, looking at Leo’s notebook along with him.

“I don’t know, Leo,” she said. “I’ve been focusing on history, not this, I don’t think I’m as far as you are. I have no idea what these words should even mean.”

Leo and Luna’s online school was rather gentle about its deadlines and schedule. Assignments had due dates, certainly, but they were generally grouped together in larger chunks, assignments for different subjects all due around the same time. There was no real order in what subjects to focus on first as long it was all done. Leo was taking a break from math and had switched to science, while Luna had been trying to get ahead in history.

“What’re you working on?” Jaden called out. “Maybe I can help.”

Luna frowned. Leo gave a shrug. “Science? Uh, what did they call it, the scientific...steps? Uh, they describe science stuff and I have fo identify...’control groups’, ‘experimental groups’, ‘independent variables’, and ‘dependent variables’. I’m supposed to know what they mean but all these terms keep getting mixed up in my head.”

“Groups and variables, huh?” Jaden brought a hand to his chin. “Huh, which one is the...no, that sounds like a dependent variable, but then, what does that make an independent variable? Control...controlling...experimenting...”

_You used to be better than this at this stuff_ , Yubel scoffed in his head. _What happened to you_?

Jaden rolled his eyes. A lot’s happened since then, sorry if his memory can’t be perfect.

“Looks like I’ve got it mixed up in my head, too,” he admitted aloud with a laugh. “I’m sure Professor Banner would know, but Pharaoh’s asleep so that’s a bust.”

“Why would Bruce Banner be in Egypt?” Leo asked.

“I still don’t know why you think your cat’s the Hulk,” Luna added.

Jaden ignored them both. “Well, there’s one other person that’ll know.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up a group chat.

> **Duel Academy’s Class of 2018**
> 
> _(Unread messages, Two days ago)_
> 
> **Chazz** : ;;;;;;;;;;;lkds
> 
> **Alexis** : chazz?
> 
> **Chazz** : ddddddddddddssssssaaa
> 
> **Alexis** : Chazz??
> 
> **Aster** : lol
> 
> **Chazz** : pharaoh
> 
> **Atticus** : can you send me a picture of him real quick?
> 
> **Chazz** : i don’t know why you want it but sure
> 
> _**Chazz sent IMG_276.jpg** _
> 
> _**Atticus send[bode.png](https://78.media.tumblr.com/35cbddd40ff83f5b86f266bf8b7e1ae0/tumblr_inline_pb5xze5Xh81rrbfjz_540.png)**_
> 
> **Alexis** : you just wrote the word ‘bode’ on the picture
> 
> **Atticus** : yeah
> 
> **Atticus** : are you guys really that behind on the memes?

There were a lot more messages after that. Jaden grimaced. Too many to read. He didn’t check this chat nearly often enough, a lot of the time it’s muted, but he’s not about to get on more often. Quickly, he scrolled past the messages to the most recent. 

> _(Now)_
> 
> **Aster** : please tell me i’m not the only one watching this duel
> 
> **Jim** : no i’ve got my eye on it too
> 
> **Aster** : he actually put emerald tortoise in attack mode?? and was surprised when his opponent destroyed it?? jesse you’re better than this
> 
> **Jim** : this is so sad alexis play whatcha say
> 
> **Jaden** : @ **Bastion** are u there
> 
> **Jim** : the cryptid returns! jaden! it’s been awhile since i’ve seen you here
> 
> **Aster** : and he’s not even here to support his boyfriend in his time of need, smh jaden, you’re terrible
> 
> **Jaden** : hey i know he’ll do great, i believe in him, but i’m sure jess understands that some of us can’t watch because we’re babysitting
> 
> **Bastion** : Hello, Jaden!
> 
> **Jaden** : you’re a science guy, can i ask you about, like, science things real quick? it’s for leo’s homework it won’t take long
> 
> **Axel** : Bastion the Science Guy
> 
> **Jaden** : inertia is a property of matter
> 
> **Alexis** : please i just started my lunch break i’ve already had enough bill nye for one day
> 
> **Zane** : Since when does Duel Academy show Bill Nye during class?
> 
> **Chumley** : yeah if they did maybe i would’ve actually gone to class more
> 
> **Alexis** : the history teacher is out and i really didn’t know what else to do
> 
> **Jaden** : @ **Bastion** are u still there

Jaden glanced up from his phone when he heard a slow, weak yet deliberate knock on the apartment door. Strange. Jesse’s duel shouldn’t have ended yet, and even if it had he wouldn’t be knocking on the door to be let in, he had a key. The twins were here. No one had made any plans to visit, so he had no idea who this could be.

“Is someone here?” Leo asked.

“I guess so,” Jaden replied. Well, he should go answer it, right? Taking his time, he meandered over to the door and opened it.

It was Bastion. He was crumpling into a heap in front of Jaden’s eyes; he was leaning with a hand against the door frame, bent over, his face red as he struggled to catch his breath. Seeing the door move, however, he forced himself into a more upright position.

“Yo, Bastion, uh...” Jaden looked him over, a frown on his face. “....did you run all the way over here?”

“Well...I happened to already be in the area...” Bastion puffed. “Thought... this would be easier... than trying to help over the phone...”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I even know what to ask. Do you need anything? Some water? A towel?” Jaden asked.

“I’ll be alright... Though I appreciate the offer.” Bastion stumbled in after Jaden stepped away from the door. He closed the door after him. “I just haven’t had the chance to do any sort of exercise lately. It seems to be taking it’s toll.”

Jaden grinned. “Well, I guess I made you get your daily exercise in.”

Jaden led Bastion in, to where Leo and Luna were still bent over Leo’s notebook. “I don’t think you’ve actually met. This is Leo and Luna.”

“Who’s he?” Leo briefly looked up from his notebook.

“This is my pal Bastion!” Jaden slung an arm around Bastion’s shoulders. “He’s the smartest guy I know. He’s gotten me out of tons of sticky situations. If anyone can help us out, I figured it was him.”

“I’m just glad I can help.” Bastion shrugged Jaden’s arm off his shoulders and walked forward, approaching Leo and Luna. “So, what’s the issue with the homework? I assume it’s science homework?”

“Yeah,” Leo confirmed. “It’s about, like, variables and groups, or something. I’m not really sure. Which is the issue. I can’t figure out what these terms mean. I mean, I read about them! And I was paying attention when I was reading! It just didn’t stick?”

Leo did his best to explain his homework again, this time to Bastion. Bastion nodded, following along until Leo was finished.

“The scientific method,” he mused. “Though only a small part of it, it seems. Not the actual method itself, just some terms involved.”

“So you know the differences in these terms, right?” Leo asked, his voice rising a bit in desperation.

“I do. Don’t worry, I think I can help you out,” Bastion assured him. “Though some of it’s easy to get mixed up, especially when you’re new to it or haven’t dealt with it in awhile. So don’t worry. With some practice you’ll have it straightened out for class, which I assume is what the homework’s for.”

"Yeah." Leo glanced down at his notebook. "What's the difference between an independent variable and a dependent variable?"

"The dependent variable depends on the independent variables," Bastion answered. Jaden and Leo both gave him blank looks; Luna had returned to her game. Bastion kept going at that, “The independent variable is the thing you change. The dependent variable is the outcome.”

”Uhh...” Leo responded.

”So, let’s say you got a new card for your deck,” Bastion suggested. Leo perked up. “And you really thought it would work well with your deck so you put it in, to try it out. So the card you added in would be like an independent variable. The dependent variable would be, perhaps, your win percentage after you made that change.”

”I think I get it.” Leo poured over one of the examples he had written down for his homework. “So for this one, the independent variable would be...the number of pillows.”

”Exactly. And as for control and experimental groups, let’s say...”

Jaden tuned them out a bit as he went back into the kitchen and began cutting the pizza. Finally cool enough to eat. By the time he finished cutting the pizza, Bastion and Leo were sitting down on the couch mext to each other, both settled onto it. Leo was throwing out his best guess to the answers. Bastion was doing his best to correct Leo’s mistakes in a way that guided him to the correct answer rather than just fixing it for him. He was a good teacher. Jaden already knew that; he’d spent enough time cramming for final exams with Bastion and Syrus.

Those had been fun times, but he did not miss the exams that came with them.

Jaden brought out plates for everyone, each with two slices on them. And everyone got a plate, including Bastion.

”Are you sure?” Bastion asked, slowly taking his. “I dropped by rather unexpected, you don’t have to give me food.”

Jaden shook his head. “No, take it. Consider it a thank you present, for everything you’ve done to help over the years. We would’ve been toast without you, man, and we don’t show our appreciation enough.”

”I hardly think this is necessary...” Bastion began, holding the edge of the plate just firmly enough to keep it upright.

Jaden waved him off. “Just eat your pizza, man. Stop talking homework for a minute, you guys deserve a break. How’s life?”

Leo scooted off the couch with his own plate to sit next to Luna and watch her play. Jaden plopped down on the couch in Leo’s former spot with his own pizza.

”Quite well, thank you. We’ve really been making big strides in our interdimensional research. Our hypotheses are holding up so far, though with everything that happened in school, I’m not surprised...”

Bastion proceeded to explain to Jaden some of the intricacies of the big project at his work: creating stable, long-lasting interdimensional paths between their own world and the dimensions in which duel monsters resided. There were all sorts of factors involved... duel energy, equations Jaden wasn't even going to pretend to understand.

"It helps to know it's been done before," Bastion added. "We've tried recreating the accident that sent me to the desert, but no such luck. Jesse and his Rainbow Dragon have us pointed in the direction of duel energy. And then, of course, there's you. Because of you we're keeping an open mind. Duel energy might not be the only way."

"Right." Jaden scratched the back of his head. "I'll be honest, I don't understand most of it, but... It sounds really cool! Maybe someday we'll all be able to go back and see the friends we made again!"

Bastion shot Jaden an incredulous look.

"...Yeah, no, not the best joke," Jaden backpedaled.

"I'll say." Bastion finished off his first slice. "And what about you, Jaden? If you're here, does this mean you've started staying in one place more often?"

Very carefully, Jaden took a large bite of his pizza. Suddenly, his pizza was very, very interesting. Maybe he shouldn't have spread the sauce out so much, with this slice he barely had anywhere to hold onto it. And the layer of cheese was a bit thick, maybe he used too much cheese.

Bastion sighed. "Are you at least keeping someone updated on where you go? Have you stopped disappearing in the middle of the night without warning anyone?"

"Yubel keeps Chazz and Jesse updated...sometimes..." Jaden answered carefully, still very invested in his pizza. This kit had only been for a cheese pizza, maybe at least one or two toppings would've been nice with it. He'd have to keep that in mind.

"Jaden..." Bastion frowned. "You should at least try to make the effort. No one will be as worried about you if we know where you are, at least."

"I guess I can try, at least." Jaden stood up, his empty plate in hand. "Well, looks like everyone's done with lunch, right? Don't let me keep you, then, you can get back to homework." Before anyone could say a word, he gathered everyone's empty plates and took them into the kitchen.

Leo moved back to his previous spot on the couch, notebook in hand. Before he got back into it, he stared up at Bastion, who still looked disappointed and lost. "So, you went to school with Jaden, right?" he asked.

"Yes, we were in the same class at Duel Academy," Bastion answered. "He stayed in the dorms for those considered to be the worst in the class, but make no mistake, he was the best duelist in our year."

"What was he like?"

"He was great at dueling, and he still is, but at school...not so much. He performed poorly on tests and homework, never really studied despite my best efforts to get him to try." Bastion crossed his arms. "He's changed since then, of course, since... Well, nevermind that." He shook his head. "What question were we on again?"

"There's only a few questions." Leo completely disregarded his notebook at that. He smiled up at Bastion. "So, if Jaden's grades weren't the best but he was still really good at dueling, then there's hope for me, too, right? I'm not the best at school either, Luna's way better than me, but I really want to be good at dueling. I want to duel when I grow up, you know, like Chazz and Jesse!"

Bastion laughed. "Well if Jaden taught me anything, it's that being a good duelist and being a good student are two separate things. You can still be good at dueling even if your grades are the best, don't worry about that. Still, I would urge you not to give up on the academics. At least keep trying in school, it's worth it to put effort into your grades."

"Be better than I was! Focus on both!" Jaden called out from the kitchen. "You wouldn't believe how much science related to dueling while we were in school."

Leo huffed. "Okay." He turned back to his notebook. "I think the control group in this question is the plants that were given water..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "bastion stays in an alternate dimension at the end of season three" no!!!!! bring my boy back home!!!! let him hang out with his friends, let his friends appreciate him! in this au bastion and tania came home with everyone else and bastion has a job involved with traveling between dimensions, doing what he does best: science. 
> 
> online school for leo and luna in this au has become loosely based on my high school online classes and my college online classes, i took online classes my senior year of high school because i couldn't physically attend school, i sort of became a guinea pig for the system (it was intended for use for summer school, which our district didn't really have before that, that was the first year our district offered summer school, before that you had to go somewhere else) and deadlines were super loose, for both when i focused on what subjects and when i finished lessons in those subjects. which, admittedly, was probably because of the state i was in at the time. college online classes have had more hard deadlines but for blocks of the material at a time, so it's not like do this much this day and this much the next but more here's a couple of lessons and a homework assignment finish it within a few weeks, that sort of thing. this is sort of a frankenstein of that and i've left it fairly vague anyway, leave most of the details up to the imagination, but it has at least some basis in reality, i'm not making it up completely. 
> 
> it's about time bastion showed up here, this chapter comes with a bonus free 50% extra memes, hope y'all enjoyed!!


	11. Infernal White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blinded by the White
> 
> GX but the more tired Jesse is, the heavier his southern accent is and the more southern words and phrases he uses, with my eternal apologies to the entire American South. you'd think for someone who's spent so much time talking to and listening to people from the Actual American South at various conventions, i would have a better and less bad handle on that, but, nope, it's all a blur by now, oops.

 

> **Atticus changed the name of the group from “Duel Academy Class of 2008″ to “Memelords of 2008 and Friends”**
> 
> **Syrus** : OKAY EXPLAIN TO ME
> 
> **Syrus** : WHERE IS THE CARROT IN THE SUBWAY PROCESS
> 
> **Jim** : I GET A FOOTLONG SUBWAY CLUB. I GET CHEDDAR CHEESE ON IT AND GET IT TOASTED. AFTER ITS TOASTED, I ASK FOR SALAD AND I ASK FOR LETTUCE, TOMATO, CUCUMBER, CARROT, AND OLIVES.
> 
> **Chumley** : hHH?
> 
> **Syrus** : YOU
> 
> **Syrus** : YOU ASK FOR SALAD?
> 
> **Jim** : _YES? YOU THINK IM GONNA EAT THIS MEAT ALL BY ITSELF?_
> 
> **Jim** : _THE SALAD IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE SUBWAY PROCESS!!!_
> 
> **Syrus** : ARE YOU CALLING THE VEGETABLES YOU PUT ON THE SANDWICH A SALAD???
> 
> **Syrus** : IT’S NOT A SALAD ITS AN ASSORTMENT OF TOPPINGS AND _CARROT ISNT ONE OF THEM_
> 
> **Jim** : _I CALL IT THAT BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT ITS CALLED HERE THEY SAY DO YOU WANT ANY SALAD AND I SAY YES_
> 
> **Syrus** : _WHAT_
> 
> **Jim** : _CAPSICUM, CARROTS, CUCUMBERS, JALAPENOS, LETTUCE, ONIONS, PICKLES, OLIVES, SPINACH, TOMATOES. THESE ARE THE SALADS YOU CAN GET ON YOUR SUBWAY._
> 
> **Syrus** : _CAPSICUM. WHAT IS CAPSICUM_
> 
> **Jim** : _HELLO? YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT CAPSICUM IS?_
> 
> **Jim sent capsicum.png**
> 
> **Jaden** : i can't see pictures without wifi what did jim send
> 
> **Syrus** : THATS A PEPPER JIM
> 
> **Alexis** : it's a picture of a pepper
> 
> **Jim** : _THAT’S A CAPSICUM_
> 
> **Syrus** : _ITS NOT!!!_
> 
> **Jim** : _DONT BE MEAN TO ME IM AUSTRALIAN_

* * *

 

> **Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?**
> 
> **Yubel sent selfie_with_exodia.png**
> 
> **Yubel** : Sorry, you two, this one's on me, not Jaden. Politics in the desert are getting a bit out of hand, it's partially my fault, I'm doing my best to help smooth things out. I'll try to get us back soon and I'll keep you updated. Jaden says hi.

* * *

 

> **Jaden Yuki Support Squad**
> 
> **Alexis** : finally got the time to talk to them and it sounds like it's going to work out. booked an appointment, but warned them that he might walk out early. they don't mind. hopefully this works out better than we're expecting. If he actually sticks around, they're very, very good at their job, so it will.
> 
> **Axel** : thanks, hopefully it works out better for him this time

* * *

 

> **Memelords of 2008 and Friends**
> 
> **Jim** : _WHEN I KILL GOD, I’LL MAKE A LAW IN THE UNIVERSE THAT MAKES EVERY BEING IN THE UNIVERSE PUT CARROTS ON THEIR SANDWICHES. THEY’LL HAVE TO DO IT. THEY CAN’T EAT A SANDWICH WITHOUT CARROTS. AND YOU? YOU WILL EAT SANDWICHES EVERY DAY._
> 
> **Ruby Carbuncle has muted all conversations for Chazz Princeton and Jesse Anderson**

* * *

Everything was white. It stretched on for miles, longer than he could see. There was no sound. Everything was numb; from his brain, screaming static as he fought to keep his mind active, down to his toes, which he barely could feel were there, even though he had no trouble standing at all. He couldn't move, couldn't turn his head to make sure the rest of his body was in fact still there, couldn't wave his hand in front of his face just so he knew he could see it.

Somewhere, he got the vague impression of voices calling out to him. He didn't know who they belonged to, or how to even try to respond. His mouth refused to open to attempt to speak.

There was white all around him, and it was blinding.

Chazz's eyes flew open. He immediately rolled over and curled up on himself.

That hadn't just been a weird dream. He'd...been there before, felt that before. It was more a memory than anything. When the Society of Light took over Duel Academy, when Chazz helped start it up, nearly converted everyone on the island himself...he hadn't been completely aware of what had been going on at the time. Barely remembered any of it, at first. All he could remember was being trapped in that white space, for nearly the whole year. But after Jaden brought him out of it, and time passed, he began to remember bits and pieces. And what he didn't remember, he soon heard about. It's not like anyone had been eager to tell him the details of exactly what he'd done, but he'd insisted. He'd needed to know.

And now, he knew.

It was unlike The Chazz to have regrets. He was The Chazz, and there was no one better than him out there. Not the slacker, not Blaster Reedus, not his family, no one. He always made the best decisions, always came out on top at the end, and he dared anyone to deny it.

Well, that sounded like something he might say, but even Chazz had to admit that wasn't true. He was full of regrets, he regretted a lot of things, almost everything. His brothers had forced him to be the best and he couldn't even do that. It wasn't just about the duels he'd lost, but the duels where losing let other people down, too. He'd been trusted with a spirit key and he'd lost it, the desert had turned him into a duel ghoul, he'd been made into a sacrifice when they jumped dimensions, he'd let Nightshroud drag him into darkness, not to mention all the fears he'd refused to admit but had to face continuously then...but, well, he'd still rather not get into that. And preferably, he'd prefer to never get into that. Point is, the Society of Light was far from his first or only regret, failure.

(And... Blaster Reedus? Was that really the best insult he'd been able to come up with for Aster? He really must not be feeling well.)

But.. the Society of Light still hit Chazz hard, sometimes. He'd be one of the members, converted after losing to Sartorius, converted many of the other members himself. He'd been brainwashed at the time, sure, but he could hardly take that as an excuse. The Society of Light had been his fault, if he'd been able to defeat Sartorius back then, it never would've happened. He'd had to rely on Jaden to break him free instead, and to take down Sartorius. The Light had used him to try to take down the world, and had nearly succeeded. And the Light had seen him, recognized his abilities, and made use of him well. He'd been one of the Society's most active members, causing the most damage. And he couldnt excuse that, refused to excuse that.

He'd messed up badly, and he was still beating himself up over it.

He'd messed up badly so many times, and here he was, still beating himself up over it.

Chazz shivered. If only everyone could see him now. He'd made a good name for himself now, but there was so little he'd ever done right.

It was his fault.

Something behind him rustled. Chazz turned his head, just enough to see. Jesse was sitting up, looking over him. His expression was unreadable. Literally. Chazz didn't exactly have nightvision over here.

"Y'allright?" Jesse mumbled, exhaustion slurring his words together in a way that Chazz probably would've found hilarious any other time. His voice was low and his accent was heavier than usual. He barely sounded awake. Yet, he was still concerned.

Instead, the only reaction he gave was a quiet, "I'm fine."

Jesse hummed. "You're fixin' to start hyperventilatin' any second now. Don't sound fine to me."

Mentally, Chazz took a step back, and examined himself closely. Examined what he was actually doing, and not how he felt. Sure enough, he was breathing hard and fast, not quite hyperventilating but getting close. He needed to stop breathing so fast, he needed to, he needed to stop.

"Don't stop breathing altogether now," Jesse told him. "Ain't willing to lose you quite yet."

Chazz took another step back, reexamined, and sure enough, now he was barely breathing at all. He'd been so focused on breathing slower that he, this wasn't what he'd meant to do.

"It'll be okay," Jesse muttered. "Just breathe. In and out. Breathe. Come on. There you go, just keep breathing."

As Jesse rambled, Chazz focused on his voice. His breathing became more regular, more normal. Before long, Jesse seemed satisfied with his progress. Or, he'd stopped rambling at the very least. That's probably what that meant. Well, unless Jesse had fallen back asleep, anyway.

But Jesse spoke up again. "Bad dream, I'd reckon," Jesse noted, more to himself than to Chazz. "Ain't gotta talk about it if you don't want to. But if you do, I'll listen. Whichever helps."

Chazz was silent at that. Would talking actually help? There were some topics that neither brought up with the other, some things they just didn't talk about. And it was fine. That silence helped, because with those things they dealt better with it on their own. Maybe someday that would change, but for now neither of them had a problem with it. Was this one of those things? Maybe a bit. But he couldn't just get it off his mind, either. Sleep didn't want to take him again anytime soon.

After some deliberation, and some realization, Chazz spoke again without letting himself think about it too much. "Have you ever heard about the Society of Light?"

"A bit." Jesse yawned. "Some pieces here and there. Evil world-destroying cult on the island. Brainwashed most of the students. Light against darkness. Jaden first being exposed to some of his powers. Somethin' about Zane. Most of what I know just...was to give context to what happened the year after. Didn't really feel right to just...ask about it."

"I was the first student converted," Chazz said slowly, "and I converted most of the others."

Jesse remained silent.

"I let Sartorius trick me into a duel and I let him brainwash me into joining his stupid club. And it was just, it was just so dumb." Chazz's voice rose and his words picked up speed. "I was so weak. I was never able to compare to Jaden, but never even paid attention in class. He didn't even have to try to be better than me. And I used to hate that. I wanted to destroy him, be better than him. I wanted to stop being a disappointment to my brothers, even after they'd already disowned me and were annoyed by the idea that I could be better than them at anything. And I wanted to stop letting you all down, because that's all I seemed good for. And Sartorius saw that and used it to his advantage and I nearly destroyed everything!"

"Now, hold your horses," Jesse mumbled. "It ain't your fault."

"I didn't even have to duel him, he just....I let him use me," Chazz grumbled.

"It ain't your fault," Jesse repeated. "It happens. If he didn't brainwash you, he probably would've found someone else to convert. You spent so long being told you had to beat the best, no one can blame you for being upset if you weren't. And no one can win every duel, anyway. Ain't your fault if you lose. You've never disappointed me 'n Jay, no matter what you've done or how many times you might've lost. Your worth isn't from any record or status you have. And your brothers, well, it's not always blood relations that count, I know that well. The family you find, you make for yourself can be just as important, can be better. I think we got a pretty good one here."

"Yeah, I know. Real family, good family, supports each other," Chazz agreed. "But still..."

"Sometimes people do horrible things, and you can't forgive 'em for it, but you still like 'em and care about 'em, or at least how they feel about you," Jesse said.

Chazz peered over at him.

"Still working on that with Yubel," Jesse admitted. He was rubbing at his eyes. "I don't blame them for possessing me. I really don't. It's just...weird, still, and that's on me." He chuckled. "Getting possessed is kinda like being brainwashed, right?"

"I guess so," Chazz mumbled. He rolled onto his back. "I just...I wasn't good enough back then. I'm still not good enough now."

"You gotta stop being such a perfectionist." Jesse reached over and gently squeezed Chazz's shoulder. "Everyone can improve, sure, but give yourself a break. I think you're pretty great the way you are now."

"Ugh, don't get all mushy on me, that's gross," Chazz complained sarcastically. He buried his face in his hands. "Grooooooss." Jesse chuckled again, and Chazz laughed, too, after a moment.

"It'll be okay," Jesse told him. "And if you feel bad about what happened, I think you've done a nice enough job making up for it. It's...it's over now, you know."

"Yeah," Chazz agreed.

They sat there, in silence, Chazz still laying on his back and Jesse flopping back down from sitting up in bed. Chazz stole a glance at Jesse. He himself still didn't feel like he was going to be able to get back to sleep yet, and Jesse look more awake now than he had before. Chazz frowned.

"While we're at it." Chazz reached over, poked Jesse in the arm. "Anything you need to talk about? Or even just, want to? I owe you, you know."

"I don't remember a whole lot from being possessed," Jesse admitted. "My soul was...removed, from my body, and Rainbow Dragon held onto it. It's not like I was there."

"I don't remember much from being in the Society of Light, either," Chazz said. "Only a little. Most of what happened I was told later, but the whole thing is mostly just..." He waved a hand through the air. "Blank."

"I don't...remember events, or what exactly Yubel did, for most of it," Jesse went on. "But it ain't like I remember nothing. I can remember...feelings. What they felt and what I felt. And it didn't take long afterwards to figure out the rest. I... I was trying to help, you know? When me and Rainbow Dragon sent y'all home. You were the first real friends besides the Crystal Beasts I had in a long time, and I wanted to help, even if I couldn't go with you. And none of you had to come back with me, either, I was fine with that. I wanted to help, but I just made things worse, didn't I? You came after me, most of you got sent to the stars, Jaden went through a real downward spiral..." He sighed. "I never meant for any of that."

"Of course you didn't. But there was no way we were going to just leave you behind after what you did," Chazz argued. "And we were all okay in the end, weren't we?"

"I know, but I wish none of it had to happen like...that," Jesse protested. "I still feel bad about it."

"Well, don't." Chazz rolled his eyes. "None of it was your fault. All you did was try to help. You know no one blames you for anything."

"Yeah..." Jesse sighed. "I don't think talking about it much more's gonna help. I'll be fine."

Chazz glanced over at him. "You sure?"

"I'm sure." Jesse shot him a smile. "I just... I know it's not my fault, and I shouldn't beat myself up over it. But sometimes it just helps to get it off your chest, you know? I'll be okay."

"Alright, then, if you're sure."

Chazz felt something jump up onto the bed. Pharoah, his mind registered weakly. Before he knew it, he was drifting back into sleep once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Subway Salad Meme](http://vainvaihe.tumblr.com/post/174429473013/things-got-a-little-heated-in-the-gc-today)
> 
>  
> 
> Right, so uh, I've messed with the name of the series a bit, so the series name has now been changed to Miracle Synchro Fusion! The previous name wasn't really doing it for me, and I tried another name briefly that you might have also noticed, but that one didn't, either. Considering the main part of this AU centers around GX and 5DS, this feels better to me. Hopefully that clears up any mild confusion but, that's enough about that.
> 
> If you like GX and you like this AU, and you also enjoy Vrains, you might enjoy Bacon Saver, which is now part three of this series! It's not necessary reading for this story, just like this story isn't exactly necessary reading for Bacon Saver. Coming back by popular demand, though, Bacon Saver will be coming back again soon, so if that might be your cup of tea, go check it out!
> 
> Next time, hopefully something a bit more lighthearted. Hope y'all enjoyed! See you again next time!


	12. Star Hall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chazz is racing through Hyrule, making every check he can, eyes peeled for the Book of Mudora. He knows he needs it for at least one dungeon he needs to get into, and he's anxious to check whether this is a pedestal seed or not. As long as it's not locked behind another item... Can he do it? Find out next time on A Link to the Past Randomizer!
> 
> The crew looks to escape the summer heat. Leo makes some observations.

Jesse blinked. What was he...hearing? Was that, no, it was a cartoon theme song. He recognized the cartoon, too. Why could he hear this theme song? The television shouldn't be on right now. Strange. With a shrug, he finished washing his hands and went back to the living room.

The twins were over, both sprawled across the couch. Leo was staring at the ceiling while Luna had a worksheet in front of her, clearly attempting and failing to get homework done. Chazz was sitting on the floor, a game open on his laptop. His controller was sitting in his hands, but the game's pause screen was open while he stared blankly at it. The television was indeed off, and the sound from Chazz's game was muted. It was quieter than mice on Christmas in their apartment.

It was hot. Hotter than should be allowed, and the humidity was worse. Despite everyone's best efforts, the weather was getting the best of them. The windows were open, fans were blowing directly in everyone's faces, but it wasn't enough. There was no air conditioning in the apartment, unfortunately; Leo and Luna had air conditioning at home of course, but they'd both been desperate to get out, be anywhere but there. Jesse stared at all three of them and decided this was too much.

"I can't take this heat anymore," Jesse declared. The sound of his voice caught everyone's attention; they stared at him. "How about the four of us get out of here? Let's go walk around at the mall, I hear that new bookstore is opening up there."

"Nerd," Chazz snorted, ignoring the fact that he was the bigger reader out of the two of them. "Of course that's what you're interested. Sounds lame, but I'll go anyway. It beats this."

Luna brightened up, putting down her worksheet. "I haven't been to a bookstore in awhile. I want to go!"

"Sure," Leo mumbled with a shrug.

It didn't take long for Chazz to save his game, for Luna to put away her work, and for everyone to get ready to go out. In no time at all, they reached the mall, and all four of them were relieved to step into the mall's air conditioning, the cool air against their skin finally giving them some energy and clearing their heads.

Before going to any stores, however, they made sure to visit one of the mall's biggest attractions. Near the center of the mall was a huge sculpture with several constantly moving parts, and many balls running through it. The sculpture was usually heard before it was seen, since the ringing and clanging noises it made as everything moved could be heard throughout most of the mall. Leo, Luna, and Jesse loved it, and while Chazz might not admit it, he was rather fond of the sculpture as well. 

* * *

"I hope they have the new book!" Luna rambled as she ran into the store, brushing against Leo's arm as she went by him. "This'll be the one where Hollyleaf comes back, I know it!"

Leo snorted. "Didn't the tunnel system she was in get plugged? There's no way she's getting out of that one. It's been like, three books already, Hollyleaf's gone for good."

"No, she'll be back for sure," Luna argued. "I know it because she deserves it! She's kind and loyal and smart, and just because she was hurt and confused for awhile doesn't mean she should be doomed to be lost forever."

"Well, you ain't gonna fnd out until you get the book, right?" Jesse asked, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "Just remember, be quiet, be respectful, and don't get lost. We're not the only ones here."

"We'll be good," Luna promised with a grin. Before anyone could try to stop her, she ran off towards the children's fantasy section, looking to get the newest update on her beloved cat fantasy series.

Leo's no bookworm. Just because he was up to date on Luna's favorite book series didn't mean he was reading it himself. He let Luna give him all the highlights of each book, though, which was close enough to reading the actual thing without, you know, actually reading it. It worked for him. He didn't have to be swarmed by pages and pages of words that never seemed to end, and he still knew the story. He'd never admit it, but he'd gotten a bit invested by this point. As weird as giving cats superpowers in a fantasy where cats shouldn't have superpowers was, he was curious to know where it was going. And he'd know soon enough. Luna enjoyed telling him as much as he preferred listening to her over reading.

But, that all came with a problem.

Leo didn't like reading, and here he was, in a bookstore.

He'd agreed to come because everyone else wanted to go, and he needed to escape the heat as much as they did. But what was he supposed to do now? He didn't want to follow Luna to the fantasy section, because he didn't want to read any of the books there. He didn't want to read any of the books anywhere in this store. Even the books with cool-looking covers didn't appeal to him, because he knew the inside was going to be just as disappointing as the rest.

At least he could admire the book covers, anyway. They looked cool, even if there was no way the books themselves were.

"Thinking about reading that one?" Leo jumped; he hadn't realized that Jesse was standing behind him, looking at the same book. This book featured cartoon-look animals on the cover, and the book was a bit wider than most. It almost reminded Leo of some comic books, but he shook the thought out of his head. Comic books were cool, okay, yeah, he'd admit he liked reading comic books. Comic books were mostly pictures, and didn't waste time and pages describing boring scenery or analyzing characters' annoying thoughts. They, or at least the ones he liked to read, were mostly _action_ that you could _see_ , like a portable movie. Something was always happening. And, well, even if this book was trying to trick him, there was no way it could be a comic. Leo'd already checked, there weren't any comics in this store. None that he liked, anyway. It might as well be the same scenario.

"Nah," Leo replied with a frown. "Just lookin' at covers."

Jesse smirked. "There's a lot more to look at inside, you know."

"Yeah, a lot of letters and words, you mean," Leo huffed. "I already look enough at those for school."

"No, that's not what I meant. Just trust me on this one." Jesse reached over Leo and picked up the closest copy of the book. He opened it to a random page in the middle and showed it to Leo. It wasn't the format he was used to, but...

"Wait, it really is a comic?" Leo asked, staring at the picture filling the page. "But I thought..."

"You mostly like to read comics about things like superheroes, right? Well, these are a little different, but you _are_ in the comic section," Jesse answered with a chuckle. "A lot of people really like the comics you can read in the newspaper on Sunday, so sometimes they're collected into books like this. They might not be as action-packed as you like, but Get Fuzzy was one of my favorites as a kid."

At that, Leo looked around at the other books in the section. There were other books with similar covers, were these other comics? Though, if they weren't filled with action, he might not like these, either.

"Calvin and Hobbes, too," Jesse went on. He was leafing through the book in his hands now, a fond smile on his face. "One weekend, when I was younger, I had the flu something fierce. Didn't really leave my bed much until I got better. I couldn't stay up to watch tv, didn't have the energy to play with any toys, and just trying to read was painful. Couldn't really use the computer or play games in bed back then, either. But, sick as I was, I was still bored out of my mind. So I just kept reading these comics over and over until Monday came and I felt well enough to go back to school."

"It's better than regular books," Leo acknowledged, looking at the pages of the book as Jesse flipped through. "I don't know how much I'd like them, though."

"You won't know until you give a chance," Jesse said. He offered Leo the book. "You can at least read through part of 'em here without leaving the store, that's what the chairs are for, you know."

At that, Leo spent the rest of the visit curled up in a chair, skimming through various comics to find the best ones.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hah, well, this wasn't supposed to be what i worked on next, but a workplace incident kinda freaked me out (i'm fine, it's not like that), i had a really rough week a couple of weeks ago, the weather's really getting to me and i just...haven't had a ton of energy. couldn't get myself to work on ncih or rb, didn't have it in me, but i've had chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14 of this planned out since before i wrote chapter 11, this is a lot more lighthearted and i need rftdd in my life more than most things i'm writing right now, so if i was going to write anything, it was going to be this. i needed a bit of a break from writing anyway, been playing more video games and watching more twitch streams lately, but i wanted to write at least a little, too. this got a bit longer than expected. we'll probably return to the usual with updating things soon, but for now, here we are. i'm definitely behind on fics that i read and keep up with as well, whoops.
> 
> part of return to the different dimension is...connecting back to my childhood a bit, especially with leo and luna. and this chapter really gets into the heart of that. it's been hot lately yeah, and this came up now because of the recent heat and such, but at my home (and currently where i'm at on campus) we don't have air conditioning either, so as a kid and still now we'd sometimes go out just to go somewhere air conditioned and escape the heat, sometimes to a restaurant or to the mall. specifically, the closest mall to my house is half an hour north, that's the mall we usually went to, and the sculpture mentioned here, that's been in that mall for longer than i can remember and is still there now, though the top part of it doesn't work now, but the bottom part does, and i've always loved that sculpture. we'd sit there for like at least ten minutes, watching the sculpture, and now it's a poke stop in pokemon go, so like the more you know. at the mall we'd sometimes go to the clothing stores if we needed to get clothes, but if not we'd sometimes try to find a movie to watch (though that dropped for awhile, we couldn't afford it, and now that we're in a better position to afford it again i can't watch movies in theaters anymore so i don't go) or go to the bookstore! and when i was a kid, the bookstore in the mall was borders. i miss borders every day. there's a new bookstore in a different part of the mall now, and there's like a comic/rpg store there too that my brother and i really want to go to someday (someday, we're gonna play d&d or something, some day, i think that store actually runs an open d&d campaign and i'm,) (i wanna play d&d yall), but it's also not the same without borders. the book series luna mentions here was one of my favorites as a kid and still might be now (and that discourse she mentioned? used to be real actual discourse back in the day, the more you know) and i'd always run to the section of borders with those books when we'd go (it used to be the like adult's fantasy/young adult's fantasy section but later got moved in with the kids books and took over most of its own bookshelf) but i also really liked some of the sunday newspaper strips, too, and we had some of the collection books of them that i liked reading a lot.
> 
> though it still connects to current events, too, despite the chapter summary chazz is actually playing the ocarina of time randomizer that's really big right now (because guess. guess. i dare you) and i swear half the time when i enter the bathroom i hear the steven universe theme echoing from the hallway and i have no idea who is marathoning steven universe here but the second i leave the bathroom it's gone, so it's probably someone on the other side of the hall. most other current events in my life would be more relevant to bacon saver than return from the different dimension, so, you know.
> 
> i hope you all enjoyed! next chapter is gonna be very much in the same spirit as this. but, uh, less books. i still kinda feel like i need to keep on my mostly writing break so nothing might update for a bit again, but i will be back, so see you again soon!


	13. Swords at Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaden breaks out the controllers. Chazz breaks out the books. Jesse breaks out the magic.

“So, who’s gonna be who?” Jesse asked.

“I’ll take the kid,” Chazz said. “I want to have the offensive magic.”

“I want magic, too, so I guess I’ll take the girl. Defensive magic is good, too,” Jesse decided.

“Aw, c’mon, why do I have to be the guy with no magic?” Jaden whined. “I wanna have magic, too, you know.”

“He’s not so bad,” Jesse assured Jaden. “He has the best stats and does the most damage.”

“You can even have the Mana Sword,” Chazz added. “You’ll get the best attacker with the beat weapon, and you don’t have to worry about your MP. But, he’s the main one, so you have to play first and unlock the other ones.”

“I guess that’s okay,” Jaden grumbled.

That was how Jaden found himself sprawled across the floor of their apartment, blowing into the Secret of Mana cartridge to desperately get it to work. Unlocking Jesse and Chazz’s characters wouldn’t take too long, he hoped. He wasn’t looking forward to fighting alone.

Chazz was sitting on the couch near Jaden, an eye mask covering his eyes. Unable to see, he simply sat and listened to the game. Jesse was seated nearby, painting his nails. A different color for each finger, to make a rainbow. And, of course, a promise to help Jaden paint his own nails red later on.

“Wait, Chazz, ain’t your eye mask black?” Jesse asked.

“My usual one is, yeah. What about it?” Chazz returned.

“Well, uh, did it magically change colors or something? Cuz it’s white now,” Jesse pointed out.

“This one? This is a different mask, obviously,” Chazz said. “It’s for dry eyes. I warmed it up. What, am I not allowed to take care of myself anymore? I’d rather not inherit my family’s eye issues.”

“This is the worst,” Jaden complained over them. He was on his back now, controller in hand. On the TV, he was fighting the first boss of the game, a tutorial boss. And doing poorly. “Did I seriously die to this guy? I didn’t even remember the dude heals you if you die here.”

“Wait, you died already? Wish I could’ve seen that,” Chazz snorted.

“You’re just out of practice,” Jesse told Jaden. He swapped colors, now on yellow. “It’s been awhile. You’ll get the hang of it and do better on the next boss.”

“I hope so,” Jaden said. Finally, the boss was dead. “Sheesh, I remember this game being hard, but that’s a bit much.”

* * *

Chazz blinked at the screen, looking up from his book. “You still haven’t gotten to the dwarves?”

“I’m trying”, Jaden insisted. His eyes were glued to the screen, his character fighting off a group of Rabites. “I’m a bit lost. Actually, I think I ended up near where Jesse’s character joins the party.”

“You better not have,” Chazz said. He flipped a page. “Recruiting the kid is a lot quicker. The girl won’t let you get the kid until you do her whole thing, and that’s easier with three people than two. Fighting the boss at the village is like, whatever.”

“And honestly, they really had to make the gal obsessed with this other guy? Seems unnecessary for a game like this,” Jesse muttered. “She doesn’t have to be in love with him to want to save him.”

“But, there’s nothing wrong with being in love,” Jaden pointed out. Leaning back, he shot Jesse an upside-down grin.

Jesse chuckled. “That’s true.” He planted a kiss on Jaden’s forehead. “I guess if you’re near the girl, I can join in first. But I call the spear.”

“I’ll take the bow then,” Chazz said, turning back to his book. “Maybe by the time you get to the dwarves, everyone will finally realize Wilson’s innocent.”

Sure enough, soon Jaden had found Jesse's character, who quickly joined his party. Jaden handed Jesse one of the free Super Nintendo controllers and they got to work.

"Are we gonna take on this place on our own?" Jesse asked. "I mean, Chazz has a point, this is easier with the kid, too. I can't even use healing magic yet."

"We'll see how far we get." Jaden shrugged. "If it works out, it works out. If we have to go back, we'll go back."

About five minutes later and three different items wasted, Jaden abandoned Jesse's character to go recruit Chazz's character.

* * *

"Okay, we're at the boss," Jaden said. "I'll just hit it with the sword…"

"Hitting it with earth magic," Chazz warned as he paused the game to cast a spell.

"Still swinging my sword," Jaden said as he waited for the spell animation to play.

"Some other enemy is hitting us pretty hard," Jesse noticed. "I'll heal us."

"Still waiting to hit it with my attack," Jaden said as he watched Jesse navigate through the spell menu.

"I'm gonna attack with magic again," Chazz warned.

"I just want to hit something so I can help," Jaden said.

"I'm gonna refill Chazz's magic since he's almost out," Jesse decided, pausing the game again.

"Having no magic is the worst," Jaden said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unintentionally for jaden's birthday?? happy birthday buddy.
> 
> secret of mana is really rad -- it's a lot of fun to play, the system's pretty unique, and at least back in the day, there weren't really a lot of games where you could play through the main story with three people working cooperatively. my brothers and i tried to play it together some time back, and i ended up being the character without any magic, meaning i had to play by myself to get the other characters, which was probably a good call since i might've had trouble navigating all the game's menus at the time, and it's probably a good call for jaden, too, it gives him incentive to stick around a little longer. i think my brother still has the save file, but it has been some time since we've picked it up. the game holds a special place in my heart, around a year ago i started playing through it again on my own but it's been awhile since i've even touched that file. my brothers and i are currently playing through pokemon together anyway (though my busy schedule isn't helping), so it's fine. i figured this would be a good game for the trio to play, but i struggled a bit on who would be which character. these were my initial picks but i wasn't certain, but then i ended up picking characters for them based somewhat on an inside-joke, which ended up with the same lineup anyway. i wanted these boys to just do something lowkey and fun for awhile, since they don't always hang out in this story all together, and usually only at times when leo and luna are around. video games are good.
> 
> i'm trying to get back into it, worked on this one concurrently with a different story i'm working on, so i'm trying to plow through. still busy though! but, uh. next chapter won't be a gx-only chapter, and might be a bit more eventful than this past couple have been. someone will be making a return, and i'm excited for that! we'll also be addressing some of the world-building already introduced to bacon saver, so if you haven't been reading bacon saver, which is perfectly fine, i'll be re-explaining that here, too. starting to tie some things together. very much looking forward to that. way in the future, i have some minor plot planned that will encapsulate multiple parts of this series, but this series will primarily remain a slice of life, that won't change. i've also have something planned out for here addressing some specific...groups... but that's been put on hold for awhile, and still is on hold, until i play more of a specific game. there's a lot of interesting things planned out for the future of this fic, and for this story! i'm excited for it all, and for all of it to be finally shown! thanks everyone for reading, for sticking around, my updating anything has been hairy for awhile but it's finally getting a bit back under control. i appreciate it! see you all next time with some returning faces!


	14. White Rainbow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesse, Leo, and Luna run into an old friend. Chazz is about to get roped into something else entirely...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of notes to explain for this one, it feels like, so I apologize. I'll try to get through this as quickly as I can.
> 
> First off, if you've been keeping up with Bacon Saver, you'll know that I've been using sub names for Vrains, since the Vrains dub hadn't started yet. However, now it has, I've watched the first few episodes, and I'm set to start transitioning to using the dub names. Bacon Saver, I plan to go into the chapters already written and start switching over when I feel able. I only mention this here because you'll see one of these names pop up; 'Cafe Nom' is the dub name of 'Cafe Naegi', which is from Vrains. We're getting vaguely into Vrains territory here, but there's no real focus on interactions with Vrains characters here. If you aren't watching Vrains, if you don't like watching Vrains, that's fine. You shouldn't need much knowledge from Vrains in this chapter, it's only visited for a bit, and it's not the main focus. I hope it's not too alienating or anything, but this is the route this chapter took.
> 
> Since we've arrived at this point, however, I believe if you've read Bacon Saver you'll already probably be familiar with this, but we need to talk setting. We're no longer truly in 'Domino City' here anymore, all the cities in the different Yugiohs (in this case, Domino City and Den City) in this universe are simply different areas in the same big city. So, everyone in GX and 5DS live in 'Domino', and here we're briefly visiting 'Den'. I discovered previous chapters didn't align with this decision, so I've edited the ones that needed it to reflect this change. You're not missing anything if you don't go back, I just changed mentions of Domino City to Domino, and fixed a typo I saw while I was at it. I know this isn't originally how this story worked, as originally it was just GX and 5DS only, and I apologize for any confusion, or if you don't like this decision.
> 
> I've been slow and inconsistent on updating anything on all ends, including here, and I apologize. I've been very busy, still finishing up my independent study while fall semester classes have started up, doing more writing for classes than I figured I would be, trying to balance practicing driving with things, and I've kinda fallen in love with Tag Force. Mostly been too tired to write when I've had the chance, this I had to start writing in class to get going. The independent study will be done too, but I've also joined onto another writing project I won't talk about here so that'll factor into it all too. I was really itching to update something now since it's been so long, but I'm still pretty busy with all that, unfortunately... I hope to update more often soon, thank you all so much for your patience and for continuing to read!
> 
> And, finally, I've made a sort of infodump page for this entire series to go into more detail about things the stories don't, and to maybe better explain more confusing aspects of the whole thing. It's largely for my own sake to help keep me consistent, but you're all welcome to [check it out as well](http://datanamines.tumblr.com/rftdd). It'll go over things about setting, sub vs dub, timeline, and all that in more detail, so if there's something you're confused on or not sure about, this page may have the answer. Or you're also free to ask! I'll answer most things (as long as I'm not planning to reveal it later on), I don't mind!
> 
> That...was a lot. Again, I'm sorry, for disappearing for a long time and then just dumping this all out. Let's get on with the actual chapter. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading!

"I'll take three hot dogs and three waters."

"Here's your order. And your change!"

"Y'all can keep the change. Thanks!"

Jesse handed Leo and Luna their meals before taking a bite out of his own hot dog. "You know, Jay might've been right. This hot dog's really good." He glanced down at Luna. "Are you still holdin' up alright? I know we're farther from home than you're used to."

Luna smiled up at him. "I'm fine," she replied. "It's not like we walked here."

"I know, but still...if you need to head back, let me know," Jesse told her.

This plaza in Den was a place that had sparked Jaden's interest recently, particularly the food truck they'd just visited, Cafe Nom. Jesse had figured the kids could use a change in scenery for a bit, as long as they could handle it. They showed duels on the screens here, and Leo at least would be interested in that. The duels shown here weren't often broadcast to Domino, and could be hard to find on the internet if you didn't know where to look. And, well, Jesse would be lying if he said he wasn't interested in these duels himself. After all, these were duels from Link Vrains, not the pro dueling circuit.

Entertainment dueling and pro dueling were two worlds so closely related yet so far removed from each other. Jesse had been trying to keep an eye on Vrains for awhile now, since before he became a pro duelist himself and was still simply helping Chazz. It was important to watch different duels to pick up different and new strategies, both to prepare against and to improve his own. Not to mention, Jesse was no fortune teller. There was no telling when he might have to duel against these Entertainment Duelists. They weren't pro duelists, but that didn't mean anything. They were good. Jesse was well aware of that by now.

They were showing an old one right now, a duel with Supreme Zarc. A master in Pendulum Summoning. And that was giving Jesse some ideas...

Jesse, Leo, and Luna picked a table to sit down at. Leo was immediately captivated by the duel, while Jesse only glanced at it once in awhile. He'd seen this one before. Ruby sat curled up on his shoulder as he ate and pondered over his strategies.

"Um, Jesse? I've been wondering..." Luna trailed off. She glanced between him and Ruby. "I know the Crystal Beasts are your family. You're really attached to them, and they're really attached to you. But whenever we go out, Ruby especially seems to stick close to you. Even on the way here, they were sitting on your shoulder as you drove. Why are they...?"

"Oh, Ruby?" Jesse reached up to scratch Ruby under their chin, earning a purr in response. "Well, you know how I am. I'm not so good with directions, get lost pretty easily." Luna nodded. "So, Ruby here likes to help me out with that, make sure I'm going the right way. Ruby's a lot better at all that than me, so it works out."

"That makes sense. I know when I feel scared and overwhelmed, Kuribon always does her best to help me feel better," Luna said as she opened her water bottle. "It's cool how some duel spirits can even help their partners outside of duels."

"It sure is," Jesse agreed. "The Ojamas have apparently helped Chazz out a lot in the past, and Jaden's got a couple of partners that have helped him tons."

"Zarc's dragon looks so cool," Leo breathed from his spot between them.

The three of them continued eating and engaging in idle conversation.

Then, someone sat down next to Jesse, nearly spooking him out of his skin. "Well, if it isn't Mr. Pro Duelist." Jesse turned to see Crow Hogan shooting him a grin. "Heard from Martha you've stopped down at the orphanage to help a few times. I really appreciate it."

"Well, howdy! It's no problem, really, I'm glad I could help," Jesse told him.

Crow glanced over at Leo and Luna. "Looks like you've got a couple of other kids to take care of today."

"This is Luna, and that's Leo." Jesse gestured to each of them in turn. "I help out when their parents are too busy to be around. Which is, uh, most of the time. Luna, Leo, this is my friend Crow."

Leo was still enraptured with the duel, but Luna reached across the table to offer a handshake. "Its nice to meet you," she said to Crow.

"You, too," Crow replied, accepting the handshake. "Your pal Jesse here's making quite the name for himself in duels. His popularity's rising pretty fast."

"Not that fast, I'm not really  _that_... Well... What brings you out all the way here, anyway?" Jesse deflected.

"I work doing deliveries. For a few different places, but today's more a personal favor than a job or anything. My buddy Yusei fixed up someone's bike for them, wanted me to drop something off for him, and I'm just passing through on my way back. And, hey, if you ever need anything fixed, let me know. Yusei'll fix it up good as new for you," Crow added.

"I'll keep that in mind," Jesse promised. "We're just here for a change of scenery ourselves."

"Hey, nothing wrong with that. Personally, I think I need a change myself. Between Yusei always working on something and Jack constantly watching duels, sometimes they drive me crazy," Crow grumbled.

"Wait, Jack?" Leo interrupted. "Do you mean Jack Atlas?"

"Yeah, unfortunately," Crow sighed. At that, Leo began to attempt holding back a squeal. Crow blinked.

Jesse laughed. "Jack's one of his favorites right now," he explained to Crow. "He and Luna do a lot of Synchro Summoning with their decks, and Jack's one of the biggest names in Synchro users right now."

"Is he? I wouldn't know, I don't keep up with the news surrounding the guy," Crow said. "I get enough of him as it is already without trying to figure all that out. Guess it's not too surprising, though. Jack's pretty good, after all."

"If you know Jack, you've gotta be pretty good at dueling yourself, right??" Leo asked, leaning forward.

Crow hesitated. "Well, I mean I'm not bad, but I'm not sure if I..."

"Jesse, you gotta duel Crow sometime! Please?" Leo insisted. "I bet it'd be so cool to watch. And you gotta duel Jack sometime, too, I can't believe you haven't!"

"Well..." Jesse started.

"I'm not sure..." Crow began.

Leo squirmed, leaning forward even further. "Please!!"

"Maybe not right now. But, I'm down for a duel sometime if you are, Crow," Jesse compromised.

Crow shrugged. "I'm not sure how good I compare to you pros, but sounds good to me. I'll be free later if you wanna duel in Domino. Don't hold back on me, though, we gotta put a good show for these two here."

"Same goes for you. You're on." Jesse grinned.

* * *

> **Private Message: Bastion Misawa**
> 
> **Bastion** : okay i know you'd rather not so you wouldn't be my first choice to ask but alexis is at duel academy, axel's got a lot going on, jim's in australia, chumley and syrus will be busy, and you're the most reliable and closest person to where i'm at and it's kind of an emergency
> 
> **Bastion** : but i need you to do me a favor
> 
> **Bastion** : it's last minute i know but it's easy. i just need you to drop something off for me. i'll send you the address, it won't take long. 
> 
> **Bastion** : i'll be incredibly grateful if you can and i'll owe you if you do it, and i know you'll enjoy holding that over my head

Chazz read over the past few messages he'd received a few times over as he began the walk home from his latest televised duel. As he received more details, he looked over them, too. Bastion was right, this really wouldn't take long at all. Doing things for other people wasn't really the Chazz's thing, but Bastion owing him a favor? For so little effort? He could get behind that.

> **Chazz** : okay i'm in but you definitely owe me for this. big time. 
> 
> **Bastion** : trust me, i know. you're a lifesaver chazz


	15. Full Force Virus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rain continues to fall...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the one hand, I'm sorry for not updating for awhile, on the other, this is sooner than I did expect to update, as I'd planned to update other stories before this one. But, some things came up, I really needed this, and here we are.
> 
> I've been participating in [YGOtober](http://askkaibaseto.tumblr.com/post/178560794441). To the best of my abilities. You can find all my YGOtober content [here](http://datanamines.tumblr.com/tagged/ygotober), but the main point being that this chapter update is technically my replacement for not writing for the day 10 prompt. This is in no way related to the prompt at all, and it's not intended to (thus it's not going into the ygotober tag), but again, I just really needed this. It's a bit...rough right now. For the same reasons I've gotten back into playing SoulSilver again, grinding my party up to their max levels (they were at 91, now they're ~92-93), so shout outs to Blaine for letting me fight him a ton for experience last night while I was working on this. 
> 
> Special thanks to a special [snake mermaid](http://snmermaid.tumblr.com/) for the inspiration and ideas in this chapter, and for letting me steal these good good ideas? This chapter isn't the resolution to the cliffhanger in the previous chapter, that'll be the next chapter after this, and I'd intended that chapter to be next, but this was too good to not do immediately. It really is just that good, I love it. <3 Thanks for stopping by, thanks for reading, and I hope everyone enjoys!

Jesse looked up from the laundry he was folding as he heard the door open.

There in the doorway stood Jaden Yuki, absolutely soaked. His pants and usual Slifer jacket clung to him. Water dripped from his hair, some of which had drooped down into his face, making it impossible for him to see (the boy really needed a haircut).

"You didn't even wear a rain jacket out?" Jesse asked him.

Jaden's head swung around to face a little off from the direction Jesse was in. "It was an accident," he protested. "Didn't know it was going to rain. I didn't really need one anyway. I mean, I'm wet, but what's a little rain going to do to me?"

"A little rain? Jay, it's pouring." Jesse sighed. "And for one, you could get sick."

"Duel spirits can't get sick," Jaden pointed out.

"You're only half duel spirit," Jesse shot back. "And the human half of you  _can_." 

"Well, I haven't gotten sick since we were in school. So I should be fine."

Jesse sighed. "Well, if you say so. At the very least, you're going to need a towel. You should dry off anyway."

He, of course, had every intention of getting Jaden that towel himself. But at that, Jaden stepped in from the doorway. "Right, a towel," he confirmed. He walked into the nearest wall, then shook his head. "Not that way. I'll get it."

Jesse watched as Jaden started walking towards another wall. "I was gonna-- I can get you the towel myself. I'm not expecting you to do it when you..." Jesse started making his way towards the bathroom. "What were you even doing out there, anyway?"

"I was... I..." Jaden stopped for a second after he trailed off. Then, Jesse heard him yell, "OH, WAIT!"

"Jaden, don't--" Jesse began to protest as he ran back to the door, but it was too late. Jaden Yuki was already gone.

* * *

The weather outside was intense. Rain was pouring, and if Zane listened closely, he could just make out thunder in the distance. The roads outside might as well be rivers by this point. There shouldn't be any reason to justify anyone being outside in weather like this. So, when he heard a knock at the front door, Zane had no idea who it was. When he answered it, it happened to be the last person he was thinking of at the moment: Jaden.

"Jaden?" Still, Zane had to ask to make sure, because Jaden was drenched. He looked more like a dog trying to pass off for being human than anything. Smelled like it, too. "Did you...walk here?"

"Ran, actually," Jaden corrected. Zane wasn't sure how he managed it. His bangs were covering most of his eyes at this point, how could Jaden see at all? "I know I'm late, sorry. I got a bit distracted and I think I almost forgot? But I'm here now."

"Here for...what?" Zane asked.

Jaden tilted his head. "You wanted to talk? Ask me something? I think it was related to dueling."

Well, yes, of course it was related to dueling when it came to Zane, but now he was on the same page. "Jaden, I told you to wait this morning when I saw the weather," he reminded Jaden. "It wasn't urgent, it could've waited. You shouldn't be out in this weather."

"Now you sound like Jesse." Jaden tried to push some of his hair out of his face, but it immediately moved back in place. He let it stay. "Well, I'm here, so I guess we don't have to cancel anymore!"

"Zane, why is the door open? Why would someone be here in this weather?" Aster asked as he approached from behind. He looked around Zane to see Jaden at the door. "Oh, I shouldn't be surprised. Still, why would you invite him over in this?"

"I didn't... Well, I did, but I told him not to come in this weather," Zane explained. "But it looks like he came over anyway."

"I forgot," Jaden added with a laugh.

Aster sighed. "Well, we can't let him in like this. He'll get everything wet and we just cleaned the house. It's not happening."

"I won't get anything dirty or wet," Jaden promised. Aster shot him a disbelieving look, then looked at Zane.

"It'll be fine if he dries off first, right?" Zane asked. "We can't really send him back out in this weather."

"I don't have any problem sending him home," Aster countered. "He's already soaked, it's not like it can get much worse. But, fine, if he dries off I suppose it's fine."

"Sweet! I'll dry off, then!"

Zane and Aster looked at each other, mirroring each other's expressions. That was Jaden's voice. But Jaden was outside, and that voice had come from behind them... They turned to look and there Jaden was, stumbling into a wall.

"When did he walk past us? How did we miss that?" Aster asked himself.

"He's never going to find anything by himself, we have to help him," Zane said with a sigh.

* * *

"What's up, Diamond Dude?" Jaden asked as he dried off his hair with a towel. The rest of him was now passably dry by Aster's standards, even if Aster was already upset over the wet state of the floors. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

Aster and Zane were standing a small ways away from him, watching him talk to what seemed to Zane to be empty air. Aster was able to confirm for Zane, however, that Jaden was talking to the duel spirit of Diamond Dude.

”So, uh, Diamond Dude,” Jaden went on. “When Aster and Zane finally, you know, are you gonna be the ringbearer, make the rings, because you’re diamond?”

Aster and Zane exchanged a look.

”Did he forget? He was there,” Aster said.

“He shouldn’t have, but with Jaden? Who knows,” Zane answered. 

“It really has been awhile, hasn’t it?” Jaden asked Diamond Dude. “I haven’t visited Aster and Zane in awhile...” Zane couldn’t see Diamond Dude’s reaction to anything, but Aster confirmed for him that Diamond adude no longer had any idea how to participate in the conversation. Thankfully, it no longer seemed necessary anyhow. “Oh, no, I should’ve visited more often, they’re probably upset with me and I gotta make it up to them somehow.”

“I was perfectly fine with the absence,” Aster mumbled under his breath.

The two of them looked away from Jaden for maybe a second at some point after that, but when that happened, he disappeared. When they found him, he was in their kirchen, washing their dishes.

”Jaden, what’re you doing?” Aster asked.

”I’ve been a bad friend so I need to help out somehow to make up for it,” Jaden answered.

”No, you don’t, you’re fine, you don’t have to do that,” Aster told him.

Zane gently tried to pull Jaden away from his work. Jaden honestly wasn’t making much progress anyway, the dish water was disgusting and unusable from the current load and he was showing no signs of replacing it. “We can do the dishes, it’s fine, you don’t have to do anything. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll get you some food?”

”Now I’m making you do things yourself and doing things for me and I’m just making it worse,” Jaden mumbled, but he did comply. After drying off his hands from the dish water, he left the kitchen and sat down in a nearby chair.

Aster fixed the dish water situation while Zane pulled out sandwich ingredients. “Is he okay?” Aater asked Zane when the dish water was drained. “He doesn’t usually act like this, and I think he completely forgot why he’s here. And you better not be making him your plain sandwiches because I swear, you’re the only person who could enjoy eating two pieces of bread with nothing inside them.”

”Jaden does like plain sandwiches, so I’m making them for him because i know he will,” Zane replied. “And he’s not usually...this open about that type of emotion without immedistely avoiding the conversation. Maybe something happened. Or, well, the weather’s been strange for a few days, maybe he’s sick.”

”Maybe. That would explain the worse than usual memory, too, huh?” Aster mused.

Soon, Zane had a few plain sandwiches to give to Jaden, who commented that he  guessed ‘you could say (he) likes this stuff’ after eating the first one. Aster shook his head at that. Jaden began mumbling to himself through his sandwiches, and soon enough he’d talked himself into a circle, convinced once again he needed to do something for Zane and Aster to make up for his previous absences.

“He really has forgotten why he’s here,” Zane commented.

”And not even Jaden is usually this forgetful and dense about something like this. He’s gotta be sick,” Aster declared.

This time, when Jaden made his move, Zane caught it. Aster and Zane followed Jaden out their back door. From their, it seemed once again like he’d disappeared until Aster spotted him this time, on their roof.

“Jaden, what are you doing up there?” Aster yelled over the rain. Thankfully, he’d had the foresight to bring an umbrella outside, which Zane was holding over both of them to keep them dry. Jaden, however, had no such protection from the rain.

“Cleaning off the roof!” Jaden shouted back.

”We can pay someone to do that in better weather! Get down from there!” Aster told him. 

“But this way you don’t have to pay anyone! You can save money!” Jaden pointed out.

”We don’t need to save money, we— Is that Sparkman? Is he... Why...”

Aster didn’t know how to finish that. Indeed, there was Sparkman, on the roof a few feet away from Jaden. How did he miss that before? Sparkman looked like he was trying to help Jaden clean of the roof, but holograms couldn’t... Well apprently holograms could, because Sparkman picked something up and tossed it off the roof as if there was nothing wrong with that image.

”Yeah, that’s Sparkman.” Jaden looked over at Sparkman, then down at Aster, and laughed. “Oh wait, I never showed you! Hold on, where’s Cyber End Dragon...”

”Jaden! Don’t summon Cyber End Dragon with your powers on my roof!” Zane commanded.

Aster couldn't deal with this. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contact list. He needed to make a call. When he found the name he needed, he hit the button to dial and waited for an answer.

”What’s up, l—“ the voice on the other end of the call began to say.

”Chazz, I can’t do this right now,” Aster said. “I need you to get Jaden off my roof, now.”

* * *

It didn’t take long for Chazz to arrive, though it was still much too long for Aster’s liking. He didn’t arrive alone, either; Jesse was with him with Leo and Luna in tow. Each of them were in rain jackets— it was still a downpour.

”So, these are the kids you’ve been babysitting,” Aster commented as the group of four approached his roof-viewing spot with Zane. “You honestly look like you could be related.”

”We are,” Jesse told him.

”Interesting. You’ve never mentioned family before, other than the Crystal Beasts,” Aster said.

Jesse rolled his eyes. “You can just ignore him, he’s not worth our attention anyway,” he told Leo and Luna. Typical of Aster to push and prod for more information at inappropriate moments. All Jesse cared about was getting Jaden home.

”Look, do you want us to get Jaden out of your hair or not?” Chazz asked. “You guys have a ladder or something, or am I going to have to convince Jaden to bring Armed Dragon here?”

”That won’t be necessary, we have a ladder,” Zane assured him. The ladder was found soon enough, and with Jesse spotting him, Chazz made his way onto the roof.

”Jaden, what in the world are you doing? It’s raining and you’re not even supposed to be here,” Chazz reminded him.

”That’s fine, I told you guys the rain won’t—“ Jaden blinked. “Wait, I’m not?”

”No, you’re not. Zane told you to wait until Saturday, remember?” Chazz asked.

”Oh, he did, didn’t he?” Jaden laughed. “Guess I forgot. Should I leave, then?”

”Yes, Jaden, we should go home,” Chazz told him.

”Cool.” Jaden glanced over at Sparkman. “Sorry, Sparkman. Looks like it was a false alarm? I guess?” Sparkman shrugged in response before disappearing. After that, getting Jaden on the ground was an easy enough task for Chazz.

”Anyway, it’s been great,” Aster said as he lead the group of five to their way out. “Thanks for the help, let’s never do this again.”

”We can only hope,” Chazz responded, glaring at Jaden.


	16. Trust Chain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Private Message: Bastion Misawa
> 
> Bastion: okay i know you'd rather not so you wouldn't be my first choice to ask but alexis is at duel academy, axel's got a lot going on, jim's in australia, chumley and syrus will be busy, and you're the most reliable and closest person to where i'm at and it's kind of an emergency
> 
> Bastion: but i need you to do me a favor
> 
> Bastion: it's last minute i know but it's easy. i just need you to drop something off for me. i'll send you the address, it won't take long. 
> 
> Bastion: i'll be incredibly grateful if you can and i'll owe you if you do it, and i know you'll enjoy holding that over my head

 

> **Private Message: Bastion Misawa**
> 
> **Bastion:** so I need you to take this package somewhere for me. be careful, it's very fragile.
> 
> **Chazz:** fragile? what's in that thing??
> 
> **Bastion:** it might be a robotics project i'm partnering on with one of the kids at the college

So, that's how Chazz found himself carrying some robotics project through Domino.

He checked once again the address Bastion had sent him. It couldn't be far now, right? Couldn't be, Chazz knew he hadn't taken any wrong turns or read the address wrong. He wasn't Jesse, after all. He could read an address and get there without any outside help.

But, well, okay. He'd never tell anyone, especially not Jesse nor Jaden, but Chazz thought he'd already found the place. He'd double-checked road signs, street numbers, it should've been right. But somehow, Chazz had shown up at some kind of clock store, instead of where Bastion was actually trying to send him. Though, the building was rather big for just a clock store, wasn't it?

Maybe he should check his phone again, just to be sure, though. He had to admit, he was a bit exhausted. Jaden was sick, and dealing with a sick Jaden was a handful. He was too stubborn, didn't want to actually take the time to recover that he needed. Chazz had been up late last night trying to get Jaden to just slow down and sleep for awhile, and eventually he'd been successful, but that cut into his own sleeping time, too. But he couldn't just sleep all day, like Jaden was hopefully doing, he had this delivery to do for Bastion and a couple of other errands that needed to get done. So, tired as he was, he pushed on. Maybe he'd admit that it's possible his fatigue was getting him mixed up on where he needed to be.

A quick check of his phone confirmed, however, that this was not the case. He'd been right the first time, this was where Bastion told him to go.

"Are you serious?" Chazz grumbled to himself. "He's your project partner, Bastion, get your addresses straight. So much for being the smart one, you can't even tell me where I'm going." With a huff, he clicked his phone back into sleep mode and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Uh, boss?" Ojama Yellow interjected. Chazz glared down at the spirit, who was floating just ahead of his shoulder. He was prepared to tell Ojama Yellow off, but held off until he at least explained himself. "Maybe Bastion gave us the right place after all. There's a different part, and it looks more like where someone lives than this store part. Sounds like it, too. There's at least someone in there."

"Ugh." Chazz rolled his eyes. "He could've at least told me where to go when I got here. What an idiot. Can't believe they're letting him do science projects. Let's see if it's the place."

Taking care to balance the box containing the science project thing against his torso with one arm, Chazz knocked on the door with his free hand.

Some guy with orange spiky hair opened the door. There was a yellow jacket he was half wearing, half letting hang off his back. "Uh, hey? Can I help you?"

"Yeah," Chazz replied. "Do you know if there's a...uh, hold on." He quickly snatched his phone from his pocket again and looked at his messages from Bastion. "Do you know if there's a You-see Foo-doo here? I'm supposed to give him something."

"You mean Yusei?" the guy cracked a smile at that. "Yeah, he's here. You're probably here to give him his science thing, right?"

"Right...the robot thing," Chazz clarified.

"Yeah, that's for Yusei alright." The guy turned away from the door to shout into the apartment. "Hey! Yusei! The thing's here!"

Someone else came to the door a minute later, with dark, less spiky hair. That must've been Yusei. "Bastion sent you here, right?" he asked. Chazz nodded. "This is for me, then. Thanks. Sorry to make you come out this way, we don't usually...do this. But stuff came up, deadlines are fast approaching, we both have a lot going on, and this is sort of our last resort."

"It wasn't that far. But don't worry, Bastion already knows he owes me for this," Chazz told him. "But he'll take care of that. You don't have to worry about it."

“Uh…sure.” Yusei gave Chazz a blank look. “Anyway, I need to start working on this immediately, but thanks again for being this over. Bastion and I can’t thank you enough.”

Yusei carefully took the box into his own hands before shuffling it to cradle the box with both arms. With a nod to Chazz and the guy who wasn’t Yusei, he turned away from the door and retreated into the apartment.

“…Did he just carry that box like it was a baby?” Chazz asked.

Not-Yusei snorted. “It might as well be one. Sorry about Yusei, he’s…a bit overworked these days. Poor guy must be pretty exhausted.” He flashed a smile at Chazz. “You want something to drink, sit down for a few minutes? It’s the least we can do for making you come out here. We can do coffee, or tea… Or, uh, just water, I guess.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Chazz reached back to itch the back of his neck. “Coffee sounds great.”

Yusei was tired? Yeah, Chazz could relate. Not that he was all that tired, he could handle it, but maybe he was just a little tired from staying up as late as he had.

“Great! Come on in, make yourself at home.” Not-Yusei stepped aside and gestured inwards. Chazz took a step inside and looked around the apartment.

There wasn’t a whole lot to be said about it. The main area he seemed to be stepping into had a lot of space. A few motorcycles were parked in there, was this some kind of garage? Did these people live in their motorcycles? No way, that couldn’t be right. A staircase off to the side suggested that there was somewhere to sleep upstairs, maybe. The main area had a computer as well, along with a few chairs and a couch. Chazz could see a kitchen off to the side, with a table and some chairs out next to it. He took a seat at the table in one of the chairs.

It wasn’t much, that was obvious. A place to live and store motorcycles. But it didn’t really need to be more than that. Chazz was well aware that bigger and richer didn’t necessarily mean better. Sometimes it was the little things that counted. And the small apartment he lived in now with Jaden and Jesse was a better home than he ever had growing up, rich as he’d been.

People mattered more than spaces. This place looked alright. Nice. Yusei and that Not-Yusei guy seemed fine.

“Not everyone who lives here actually drinks our coffee,” Not-Yusei was saying, breaking Chazz out of his thoughts and observations. The guy was out in the kitchen now, getting the coffee. There was an edge to his voice, though not malicious. If Chazz could see his face, he’d probably be rolling his eyes. “Some of us would rather go out and get it elsewhere. But it’s good enough for me n’ Yusei. Just, uh, hope you aren’t expecting anything fancy.”

“Whatever you have is fine,” Chazz told him. Sure, he had his coffee preferences, but he wasn’t going to force them on these poor fools who weren’t even expecting him. And they were the ones who offered. Say what you want about the Chazz, but he had good manners.

Not-Yusei came out a minute later with two mugs full of coffee. They must’ve already had coffee made. He handed one to Chazz and kept the other for himself, seating himself at the table on the opposite end from Chazz.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I’ve even introduced myself,” Not-Yusei apologized. He stuck out his hand across the table. “I think you figured out who Yusei is, but I’m Crow. Nice to meet ya.”

“Chazz. You, too.” Chazz reached across the table and shook Crow’s hand.

 

Honestly, he wasn’t sure how to place these too. If Yusei was a college student, was Crow in college, too? What sort of subjects were they even majoring in? Yusei was probably some kind of science nerd like Bastion, if the group project was any indication, but there was nothing to go off of for Crow. They had motorcycles here, but that wasn’t necessarily related. It wasn’t like he knew either of them that long though, making assumptions like this probably wouldn’t do him any good.

Not that it really mattered that much, it’s not like they were Chazz’s friends, and he had no plans to ever come back here. It was more a passing curiosity than anything. Yeah.

“Yup, Yusei’s real smart at science and all that junk,” Crow confirmed for him. He stirred a spoon in his coffee mug. “He’s more focused on duel science than anything, but he and Bastion are working on this robot project together right now. I don’t know exactly what they’re trying to do, right now I think they’re just trying to make it drive correctly. They spend a lot of time working on it over here, and most of that time, they’re not…happy.”

Chazz snorted. “Sounds about right. Whenever Bastion shows up in our group chat lately, he’s always complaining about some project he’s been working on. It’s probably that one.”

“Sounds like it,” Yusei called out. “Let’s just say that this project has caused us both a lot of stress.”

Chazz glanced over. Yusei was at the computer, analyzing what was on the screen as he scrolled through whatever he was looking at. Something was on the floor next to him; it was probably the robot project Crow mentioned. The robot was still at the moment.

“We think the sensor might be on its way out, so we’re borrowing a different one.” Yusei stepped back from the computer. He bent down and gingerly picked up the robot. “I’m going to replace it and see if it changes anything.”

“Yusei’s also a mechanic part-time,” Crow added. “He can fix almost anything. He keeps our motorcycles going, that robot… None of that stuff’s for me, though. I’m a delivery driver, and I do volunteer work at an orphanage. He’s the brains in this apartment.”

“And Crow’s the heart. He’s great with kids.” Once Yusei got his hands on a screwdriver, he’d started working on taking out some screws on the bottom of the robot. “Brains isn’t everything, Crow, don’t sell yourself short.

“Wouldn’t you normally pair brains with brawn, not heart?” Chazz peered down into his coffee mug. It was probably cool enough by now. Slowly and carefully, he lifted the mug up to his mouth to test the temperature of the coffee, before swallowing about a third of the coffee all at once.

“It’s not exactly a pair,” Crow corrected him.

Chazz was about to ask him what he meant, after placing the mug back on the table. He was interrupted by the sound of someone walked down the stairs.

“Honestly, do you two have to be so loud? Can’t anyone sleep in peace around here?” Chazz watched the staircase until he could see the person descending it. “Honestly, not everyone wants to wake up as early as you two-“

The person had meant to glare at Crow, but instead, he ended up staring at…

“Chazz Princeton,” Jack Atlas greeted him curtly.

“Jack Atlas,” Chazz said. He took a slow, casual slip from his coffee.

Why didn’t anyone tell him Jack Atlas lived here?! Not that he and Jack Atlas had dueled yet, but it still felt weird being in the home of a pro duelist he’d never even met before. But, of course, he couldn’t show that now, he had to own he fact that he was here. Bastion could’ve given him a heads up, though.

Crow looked between the two of them, then his eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh, you’re Chazz Princeton, that pro duelist! You’re probably already familiar with Jack, then. If I were gonna assign anyone here to be the brawn, it’d be him.”

“I've heard of him, yeah,” Chazz replied, an edge still remaining in his tone.

“So, Princeton.” Jack folded his arms in front of his chest. “To what pleasure do I owe your presence in our apartment?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not here for you,” Chazz told him. “My friend wanted me to drop something off for Yusei.”

Jack shot a suspicious look in Yusei’s direction.

“Bastion. Robot,” Yusei clarified without looking away from the computer.

Jack looked back to Chazz. “And why would I be so worried about you being here?”

“Because, if I were here to duel you, then I’d mop the floor with you easily.”

Chazz took a long sip of his coffee, finishing off the mug.

“As if you could hold a candle to me!” Jack glared at Crow, who was shaking with laughter across the table from Chazz. “And just what do _you_ think is so funny?”

“Oh, just, it’s hilarious listening to you argue with someone just as eager to pick a fight as you, Jack,” Crow told him, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice. He looked at Chazz. “Please come visit again sometime. The way work’s been lately, I needed a laugh.” Crow turned back to Jack. “I wouldn’t underestimate him, though. You’re both pros, I’m sure he could give you a run for his money.”

“So you don’t think I can win?!” Jack demanded.

“Just a gut feeling.”

Jack looked back towards the computer. “Back me up here, Yusei!”

Yusei kept his eyes glued to the computer screen. “Don’t decide you’ve already won, Jack, you haven’t even dueled yet.”

“I see how it is,” Jack scoffed. He frowned down at Chazz. “But I know how you duel. Using cheap tactics to make your weaker monsters come out on top. But you monsters could never take down mine, they don’t even compare.”

“And I’ve seen the way you duel,” Chazz countered. “You play with power. But I’ve taken down tougher. It doesn’t matter how strong your monsters are, they’ll fall all the same to the Chazz.”

“Then why don’t we see about that right now?” Jack challenged. “Unless you’re afraid, that is.”

“I never leave home without a deck, but I don’t have my duel disk on me.” Chazz pulled out his phone to look at the time. Yikes. “And while we could just duel on the table, I don’t have the time. I should get going. And don’t we have a duel scheduled already? We’ll settle this then.”

“Coward,” Jack muttered as Chazz stood up from the table.

“If you want to think that, sure.” Chazz started heading out the door, but threw his left hand up in a wave. “See you all again sometime, maybe. Thanks for the coffee.”

* * *

Chazz was about two seconds away from climbing into the refrigerator, his head already stuffed pretty far in. Did they not have anything to eat in here? Well, there was a leftover salad, but salad wasn’t real food. After some thorough searching, he found a bag of chicken wings that still looked good to eat. That would work.

Just as he was about to take them out, he heard a knock on the door.

“Oh, are we finally getting the air conditioner fixed?” Ojama Yellow asked, floating just behind Chazz. “Thank goodness! I’m roasting over here, boss!”

“You think _you’re_ too hot?” Chazz grumbled.

The air conditioning in their apartment had been busted for awhile, and was blowing out hot air instead of cold. They still hadn’t turned it off, either. It wasn’t much warmer than usual, and the moving air was still an improvement over the still, hot air they’d be dealing with otherwise. Chazz was down to a tank top and shorts just to cope, and he hated not wearing his jacket or, you know, regular pants. Jesse had gotten someone to come over to work on it, and now was about the right time for them to arrive.

“Quick, answer the door before they think no one’s here and go home!” Ojama Yellow encouraged him. Chazz rolled his eyes. He was already on his way to the door. A few seconds later, he answered the door.

The last person he expected to see on the other side was Bastion’s science partner guy. Had Crow mentioned that Yusei was a mechanic? Honestly, he couldn’t remember.

“Robot guy?” Chazz blurted out, then mentally facepalmed. He remembered Yusei’s name, why did he call him that?

Yusei cracked a smile. “Yeah, I’m the robot guy. Yusei. I work as a mechanic on the side sometimes. I’m supposed to fix an air conditioner here?”

“Yeah, sure, come on in.”

Chazz let Yusei in and closed the door behind him. He lead Yusei to the air conditioner; they had one in the living room, hanging out in one of the windows. Central air conditioning was a nice dream, but it was that, a dream. Yusei sat his bag of what Chazz assumed were his mechanic tools he’d use to magically get the thing working again on the floor, then he took a look.

“So, wait, you’re the guy that Jesse got to come over?” he asked. Did Jesse…know this guy? Or was this some sort of weird coincidence, that the first mechanic Jesse happened to find was someone Chazz had already met?

“Sort of.” Yusei shrugged. “See, uh, that Jesse guy asked Crow about it, Crow asked me, I said I could do it. And Bastion had heard your air conditioning wasn’t working and he and I figured I could work on it to help thank you for transporting our project. I was going to do both those projects today, I didn’t even realize they were the same thing until I headed out for the day. You and Jesse must live together again.”

“We do.” There was a lot for Chazz to dissect in that statement. “Then Jesse knows Crow??”

“They met at Jesse’s job, yeah. It’s not like they see each other much or hang out a lot or anything, but they seem to get along well enough. I’ve never met Jesse myself, but Crow likes him.”

"Everybody knows everyone, don't they? You know Bastion, Jesse's met Crow, Aster already dueled Jack..."

"It's a small world, isn't it?"

Yusei chuckled, and Chazz had to groan at that. "Now I have to tell Jesse about that whole visit," Chazz said. "I didn't tell him anything except that I had to make an extra stop out. I'll never hear the end of it if he finds out that I met one of his friends and didn't tell him."

"Bastion's already heard all about it. He came over to work on our project, and Jack and Crow told him the whole story. He found it pretty entertaining. I didn't remember enough to really contribute. Once I got the box, all I can remember is what I was working on. Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Chazz told him. "You were busy."

Yusei worked in silence for a bit, and Chazz just stood there and watched, at a loss of what else to do. Then, Yusei broke the silence.

"You and Jesse are both pros, right?" he asked. "They don't have a problem with that?"

"The pro circuit knows," Chazz answered. "It's fine. It's not like we're going to cheat against each other in duels, or try to rig duels we have against each other. They know that. And it's not like we're the only case."

"That's good. That they can trust you, and you can trust each other. That's important in a relationship."

Yusei was smiling, though still focused on his work. Chazz looked away.

"I can't even trust Jack not to spend all our money on coffee," Yusei went on. "It bothers Crow more than me, though. Those two are always butting heads over something. They've always been like that." He sighed, then shook his head. "Jack tried to push me to go pro. Crow's been thinking about it, too. I dont think it's for me, but Crow's good. He could do well."

"I helped Jesse decide to go pro," Chazz remembered. "You're like Jaden, though. We all think he should go pro, all his friends. And if he wanted to, he could be one of the best out there, no problem. But he won't do it."

"It's not for everyone."

"No, it's not. Maybe it will be one day, though, for Jaden," Chazz mumbled.

Jaden's dream used to be to become the King of Games. That dream never should've been torn away from him during school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo, it's been...a couple of months! sorry! life's crazy! you know how it is when you have classes going on and graduation coming up and you're trying to look for a job! and other stuff! but, uh, hopefully kinda making up for it, this chapter's a bit longer than at least some of the previous chapters have been. longer than any of the chapters still saved on my computer at least. sorry about this being a longer chapter, but it was definitely worth it! this chapter's a direct sequel to the chapter white rainbow!
> 
> it seems last chapter caused some concerns over a mr. jaden yuki... perhaps the outcome on your minds is on its way, or perhaps, it has already occurred... (if you haven't read [dark calling](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14618955) yet, i highly recommend it! it's an au of this universe that deals with the dark signer arc, and what seems to be on y'all's minds... that story seems to be a direction that'd lead into!) or, perhaps... it could occur yet again.
> 
> we're finally getting to see a bit more of 5ds characters that aren't leo and luna! jack appeared once and crow's shown up a couple of times, but this is definitely a more in-depth look at yusei and jack and crow than we've gotten before. this is still very much a pre-5ds au, but jack and crow and yusei's living situation is very similar to seasons 3 and 4, minus the upcoming duel tournament and time travel business. the three of them all live together, jack's a pro rather than being unemployed, crow's got his delivery job but he still helps martha out, yusei is going to college for dueling-related sciences but also does mechanical work on the side. you got a broke thing? he'll fix it.
> 
> next time! next update to this series won't be a new chapter to this story. it'll be a gx story centered around GX! (not account for bacon saver, which updates to the beat of its own drum, and may update before or after that update) see you then, but until then, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, thanks for reading!!


	17. Cocoon Rebirth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna gets some rest.

Jesse sat down on the couch, TV remote in hand. Occasionally he’d readjust the volume, usually lower, with a frown on his face.

Chazz was on TV, of course, a live broadcast of his current duel. Jesse didn’t recognize the opponent, hadn’t bothered to read the name. He was confident Chazz would win anyway. His phone buzzed frequently in his pocket, no doubt some of their friends were talking about the match, but Jesse ignored it.

His attention was only half on the match anyway.

Anxiety and guilt was gnawing at him. He was over at Leo and Luna’s place. Leo was gone, needing a break from being cooped up in there, and Jaden was taking care of him today. Jesse remained there, however, to watch Luna.

Her health was worse today. She was exhausted, needed to rest. Going out was out of the question for her. Jesse couldn’t help feeling that they’d gotten overzealous about taking Luna out, that it was his fault she was feeling so bad today.

She’d wanted to go out today, too, but it was obvious that would be overdoing it. She was so tired she couldn’t stop crying until Jesse sent her back to bed.

Leo and Luna had both tried to assure him that she would be okay with rest. That it wasn’t his fault. This happened sometimes no matter what she did.

But Jesse couldn’t stop fearing she’d get worse, and his attempts to distract himself from his guilt weren’t working.

Still, if something did happen, Topaz Tiger was sprawled out around Luna's feet, keeping an eye on her. Topaz would tell him if she needed anything. It wasn't like the fact that he wasn't hovering over Luna would mean he wouldn't know if she started getting worse, and she'd get mad at him if he was hovering over her like an anxious hen anyway. Honestly, she'd probably consider Topaz's presence hovering enough as it was. So worrying about it wasn't going to do any good, feeling bad about it wasn't going to do any good, and he should just be prepared to help her out if she woke up.

Jesse tried to put more attention on the duel. He'd missed the last three moves, and was now forgetting every move within a few seconds after it was made. He sighed. Get a hold on yourself, Jesse.

Something shuffled behind him. He turned his neck tolook back and see the source.

Luna had woken up. She was walking out of her room, though slowly. She wrapped her arms around herself as she moved. Topaz was walking with her, matching her pace.

"Hey, Luna! How're you feeling?" Jesse called out.

Luna stopped and looked over at him. "We told you I'll be fine. I just need rest. You didn't need to make Topaz Tiger watch me, I won't need to go to the doctor over this."

"As if we're not as worried about you as he is," Colbat Eagle grumbled from where he was perched on the TV.

"I just wanted to make sure you're okay," Jesse told her. "Just in case. I probably pushed you too hard, took you out more than I should've, and I'm sorry."

"You didn't push me too hard," Luna said. "If I needed to stay home and rest more, I would've told you. If I was gettin too tired while we were out, I would've told you. You know I would've. It's not your fault, I just...get bad days."

"If you're sure..." Jesse sighed. "You need anything? I can get you breakfast, or..."

Luna frowned. "I...probably need to eat. I'll eat Poptarts, I guess. I just want to be awake."

"Well, that's easy enough."

Jesse jumped up and ran to the kitchen. Getting Poptarts and a bottle of apple juice only took him a second, then he went to Luna's side, slightly grabbing her by the shoulder to support her.

"I can walk on my own," Luna mumbled.

"Sure you can," Jesse agreed. "But there's nothing wrong with getting a little bit of help if that makes it easier."

Luna sighed. "Only if you promise to stop feeling bad about this, especially when it's not your fault. And if you don't worry so much. I will get better, really. If you promise... I'm walking to the couch."

"Well..." It was Jesse's turn to sigh. But Luna seemed certain. It didn't look like she was trying to lie to make him feel better, either. If she was right, maybe he could believe her, and try to stop his guilt from weighing him down. "Okay. I promise."

Luna smiled at him and let him help her walk to the couch. Once they got there, he made sure she was settled down on the couch next to him, with her breakfast in easy reach when she wanted it. Her arms were still wraped around her torso, though, and she felt him shiver against him. She must be cold, poor thing. Jesse didn't blame her; he'd been cold himself, and had settled on the couch under a blanket he'd brought over with him until Luna showed up (the blanket itself was covered in the designs of various dragon monsters), and Jesse was fully dressed for the day. Luna was still in her Crystal Beast themed pajamas, if you could count a shirt that Jesse, Jaden, and Chazz had all outgrown, now being used as a nightgown, as pajamas. Jesse wrapped both himself and Luna up with the blanket. She relaxed a bit.

"I can turn the TV off if you want or need me to," Jesse offered.

Luna shook her head. "I want to watch Chazz duel."

"Alright."

Jesse frowned. The way that Luna phrased that sounded a bit off, but he wasn't going to push it. After all, she wasn't feeling well. It wasn't that she never wanted to see Chazz or Jesse when they were on TV, but well, she wanted to see them to see them more than to watch them duel, usually. But there was also the possibility that Luna was becoming more interested in dueling again, too, and Jesse didn't want to dissuade that.

Still, he had the feeling that Luna wanted the duel to distract her as much as Jesse had wanted it to distract him. He turned his attention back to the duel.

It was going well for Chazz. Really well, actually, he had his opponent on the ropes. Now that Jesse's attention was more on the duel again, and he saw the name of Chazz's opponent flash on the screen again, he remembered hearing Chazz talk about him. He was the champion of some small region, looking to make it big in the pros. The way the duel looked, though, Jesse doubted that would happen. Chazz wasn't just dominating the duel, he even looked bored. Chazz always made an effort to look at least a little excited for his duels these days, even if he was bored out of his mind. If his boredom was visible on his face, then his opponent must be real bad.

The opponent was trying to set up some kind of defense with his dinosaurs, but Chazz had no trouble stomping it out with his Ojamas. Chazz was unstoppable.

"I...had a bad dream," Luna mumbled. "About missing my ride to leave somewhere and not being able to get home."

"Well, I promise you won't have to worry about that," Jesse told her. "If that ever happens, I'll get you home, or if I can't Chazz or Jaden will." The assurance turned sour in his mouth, though, as he realized, "But if all three of us are busy... One of our friends could help, but you can't..."

With that realization, Jesse pulled his phone out of his pocket and immediately began sending Leo and Luna the information for about half of his contacts: his friends from Duel Academy. As he did, he kept mumbling to himself.

"Shoot, why did I send Jim's info, Jim's in Australia, he won't be able to... But, if he visits, then maybe... Alexis is busy at Duel Academy, why did I..."

Luna giggled, looking up at Jesse. "It's okay. I doubt it'll happen, I'm no worried that it will. If something does happen, I'm sure it'll work out, and we'll be okay. Honestly..." She frowned. "I woke up to something worse than the dream, and that's bothering me more."

Jesse still made sure Luna and Leo had his improvised list of emergency contacts before putting his phone down. "What happened?" he asked.

Luna looked down at the couch. "We...got a message from our parents, a couple of hours ago. They're going to be gone a week longer than they thought."

"I'm so sorry." Jesse wrapped an arm around her shoulders. That was on top of another week longer that'd be gone than the original plan. "I know you guys are looking forward to them being home."

"It's..." Luna shook her head. "I know they're busy, I know it's not their fault, I'm not mad at them for it. Sometimes, it just feels like...they don't even want us around. And it kinda feels like my fault, when I've caused so much trouble for them. I just wish they were around more, I guess."

Jesse gave her shoulder a squeeze. "I'm sure it's not that, and it's definitely not your fault. But not everyone has a great relationship with their parents, or with other members of their family. It's often more complicated than that."

"Yeah, I know," Luna replied with a sigh. "I have plenty of examples of that now."

"Just remember," Jesse told her. "Family isn't just what's forced on you. You don't have to throw that away, but you can choose who your family is, too."

"...Yeah," Luna agreed. She looked up at him with a smile. "And you and Jaden and Chazz are me and Leo's family just as much as our parents are."

Jesse grinned. "And you're ours, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ruby carbuncle spent the entire chapter sitting in the bathtub thanks for coming to my tedtalk.
> 
> Hey! I know I said the next update to this series was going to be a one-shot and not a new chapter for this story, and this chapter definitely wasn't planned out more than a few days ago, it just kinda happened. This series wasn't even supposed to be the next story I update anyway, but... it just kinda happened. Next update though, for sure, will be that one-shot. I promise. And we'll certainly have more Bacon Saver soon, too, I just have other things I need to work on, too.
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed! Next chapter of this story will take place kind of at the same time as this one? It'll be centered around Jaden and Leo. Look forward to it! It means so much to me that this series has gotten as much love as it has and I appreciate every single one of you.


	18. Super Junior Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Witness why I am known as...

_Linking with... Jaden Yuki..._

_Linking with... Leo..._

Jaden stepped through the Gate, immediately having to shield his eyes from how bright it was. He looked around him, squinting past his hand. The fountain was nearby, the steady sound of running water hitting his ears now that he remembered. The Duel School wasn't far from here, and he could see one of the Card Traders from where he stood as well. Duelists milled around the area, each with all kinds of different decks and strategies, and all kinds of different tasks in mind, be it missions, events, or just finding an opponent.

Yeah, Duel Links hadn't changed much since the last time he was here. It was good to be back.

Leo entered Duel World a few steps behind Jaden. He nearly tripped on the gate, but Jaden caught him by the shoulder. Jaden looked around them again before turning to look at Leo.

"Here we are!" Jaden gestured around them with his left hand, grinning. "Welcome to Duel Links!"

"Whoa..." Leo took it all in slowly, his eyes wide with amazement. Jaden couldn't blame him. This really was a fantasy world for duelists.

Jaden himself didn't spend much time in Duel Links. He didn't do a lot of competitive dueling for fun with strangers these days. He still dueled a lot, of course. It was kind of in his job description. And he dueled for fun with his friends often enough. Duel Links would've been his jam back in Duel Academy. Now, he supposed, not so much. But it was something he could share with Leo, that Leo would appreciate and love, and Jaden was glad to do so.

Jaden's heart swelled as he watched Leo's excitement build.

Luna had dueling-related abilities: seeing Duel Spirits, her connection to one of the dimensions where spirits lived, the destiny laid out for her and the light that filled her with it... Jaden, Jesse, and Chazz, of course, had their own abilities, connections to spirits, and experience with destiny. But these were things, at least some of them, that Leo lacked. Leo had that same kind of light within that Luna had, but while Ancient Fairy Dragon had made Luna's destiny very obvious, Leo had no such thing connecting to him one way or the other. There was nothing wrong with that, of course. Abilities were just part of a person. Some people were good at math, some people were good at thinking things through and planning ahead, some people could see Duel Spirits... Everyone was special in their own way. But Jaden was afraid Leo might feel left out sometimes because of it. If he did, he didn't show it. Still, Jaden wanted Leo to feel included with them all and a part of things, too. No one should feel left out.

In many ways, Leo reminded Jaden of himself, very early on in school. Dueling with his gut over his brain. A big passion for dueling over anything else. Maybe a bit of desperation to do just as well as his peers and fit in, though that had been Jaden more than Leo now, which was a good thing. Leo was just missing all the darkness, the plotting of people around him to take advantage of his dueling passion and skill and use it against him, the magical powers, maybe the mystical destiny...

It was for the best, really, that Leo was missing all that. He wouldn't end up like Jaden, that way.

"This is...so...cool...!" Leo was beaming. "What do we do first, what do we do first?? I can duel anyone, or I have this list of missions, or..."

Jaden laughed. "Duel Links is full of possibilities. But before that, duels are different here. You should know how they work. You have a smaller deck and a smaller field to work with, but the biggest new thing to learn about is Skills, and after that, we'll have to figure out which one you're going to use..."

* * *

"Okay, my deck's good to go, I think I have this Skill figured out," Leo mumbled. "Now I just need to figure out what--"

_The Event is now open. Event code... Atlas Rising_

Leo gasped as he read through the new notification. " _Jack Atlas_ is having an event? Here, in Duel Links?"

"Looks like it." Jaden skimmed through the notification as well. "Looks like if you duel other duelists, you get..." He paused, snorting. "...'Blue-Eyes Mountain Coffee', and when you gather enough cups of it you can duel Jack himself."

This wasn't Jaden's first rodeo. Duel Links had had enough events with professional duelists before. It was one of the perks of KaibaCorp having its hands in both things. Sy'd had an event here, Chazz had had a smaller event here once as well. Now it was Jack's turn. Jaden was familiar with how these types of events worked, but he couldn't help laughing at the part about the coffee. Of all things. The guy must've really liked the stuff.

"Okay, new plan. Forget everything else. I gotta duel Jack, I gotta! I just need to get my hands on some coffee first..." Leo looked ready to run off, but he stopped himself. "Oh! Before that!" He latched his arms around Jaden's leg, hugging him tightly. "Thank you. For all this. For everything."

Jaden smiled as he ruffled Leo's hair. "Of course! No prob! I'm just glad you're having fun here, really. Let's get you ready to duel Jack."

* * *

Once they got the coffee needed, it was time to make a beeline to the Gate to challenge Jack.

At one point, dueling all the dueling, Jack could've sworn he heard someone yelling about Jack spending all their money on coffee. He hadn't been able to focus on it long, but boy did he wish he could have.

"Here you go!" Leo handed Jack the required amount of coffee.

Jack o a sip of a cup, then smiled down at Leo. "Ah, yes, now this is a true cup of coffee. I believe I owe you a duel for this. I don't plan to disappoint."

Even for Duel Links, Jack went all out. Leo wasn't able to get a victory in. He wasn't upset, though; in fact, he was ecstatic Jack didn't go easy on him. Jaden knew the feeling.

"Thanks for dueling him," Jaden told Jack after the duel wrapped up. "I know it means a lot to him, you're becoming one of his favorites with your Red Dragon Archfiend and that record of yours." Jack had still barely lost a pro match. (He still hadn't dueled any of Jaden's friends, other than Aster, though. Once he didn't, Jaden wasn't sure that record would last.)

"Of course. It was my pleasure." Jack looked over Jaden. "I thought you seemed familiar. Jaden Yuki. You're becoming quite a common name in pro dueling."

"I don't do that much, really. I don't see why..." Jaden muttered.

"Personally, I'd probably disagree. Where would a professional duelist be without those who support them?" Jack shrugged. "You have many friends among the pros who speak highly of you. I lost my appetite for arguments earlier though. I see you have enough coffee to duel me as well. With a reputation like yours, I have to challenge you in a duel."

(Leo, standing next to Jaden, looked ready to explode with excitement and joy.)

"With a reputation like yours? I gotta accept." Jaden smirked. "Hope you're ready to get your game on, Jack!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place at the same time as the previous chapter.
> 
> If you haven't read it yet, this series has a new one-shot. It's a GX story, Swords of Revealing Light! It takes place after if I'm remembering right, chapter 11 of Return from the Different Dimension. White Veil, I think it's called. It's not necessarily required reading for this story, but if you're itching for more Jaden and Alexis, it's there if you want to read it!
> 
> I don't remember if I've gone over this before, but just to be sure. This series includes both pro duelists and the Celebrity Duelists of Vrains, who are treated in this series like the Entertainment Duelists of Arc V. They're separate things; the Celebrity Duelists duel in Link Vrains (currently under maintenance/reconstruction), pro duelist duel in the real world. The pros, however, occasionally do little things with Duel Links itself. Duel Links and Vrains are both separate things in this series. Vrains, still run and maintained by SOL Technologies, is only accessible in Den, Duel Links, run and maintained by KC, is accessible everywhere. Duel Links itself isn't much different from how the actual game is. One minor difference between Duel Links and Vrains here is that in Vrains you can choose your screenname and appearance, Duel Links you use your real name and real appearance. Not so anonymous.
> 
> Duel Links is something I know Leo would enjoy (heck, in the game's canon, he just kinda ran off to Duel Links and never came out the second he could...) and I wanted to do something for him, and the world always needs more Leo and Jaden bonding. Love those boys. 
> 
> Next time, some more fun bonding times! Yeah! Nothing bad happening here. Thank you so much for reading! This fic recently surpassed 100 kudos... And really, I can't believe so many people like this little AU. It means a lot to me. Thanks, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Hopefully we'll be back again soon!


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